Assessing the publishing priorities and preferences among STEM researchers at a large R1 institution

Abstract

The cost of academic publishing has increased substantially despite the ease with which information can be shared on the web. Open Access publishing is a key mechanism for amplifying research access, inclusivity, and impact. Despite this, shifting to a free-to-read publishing environment requires navigating complex barriers that vary by career status and publishing expectations. In this article, we investigate the motivations and preferences of researchers situated within our large research institution as a case study for publishing attitudes at similar institutions. We surveyed the publishing priorities and preferences of researchers at various career stages in STEM fields as they relate to openness, data practices, and assessment of research impact. Our results indicate that publishing preferences, data management experience and research impact assessment vary by career status and departmental approaches to promotion. We find that open access publishing is widely appreciated regardless of career status, but financial limitations and publishing expectations were common barriers to publishing in Open Access journals. Our findings shed light on publishing attitudes and preferences among researchers at a major R1 research institution, and offer insight into advocacy strategies that incentivize open access publishing.

Keywords: Academic culture; Data management; Open access; Open science; Publishing preferences; Research; Research assessment.

Fig. 1

Survey Respondent Characteristics and Primary Publishing Criteria. A. Distribution of academic experience grouped by career status measured by years after completing PhD. B. Department type grouped by career status. C. Primary publishing outputs. D. Primary publishing criteria, free-response answers were binned based on similarity and grouped by academic status see Figure Supplement 2 for sample responses and binning strategy. **p < 0.005 using a χ² goodness of fit test.

Fig. 2

Publishing practices and participation among research grouped by career status. A. Percent of Respondents with ORCID IDs. B. Preprint publishing frequency among respondents grouped by career status. C. Preprint publishing frequency among respondents grouped by department type. D. Departmental support of open access publishing. E. Percent of respondents who publish manuscripts in eScholarship, or similar manuscript repositories grouped by career status. E. Percent of respondents who publish manuscripts in eScholarship, or similar manuscript repositories grouped by department type.

Fig. 3

Publishing costs and barriers to open access funding. A. Cost of publishing grouped by department type. B. Discouraged by the cost of open access publishing grouped by department type. C. Discouraged by the cost of open access publishing grouped by career status. D. Grant funding grouped by department type. E. Grant funding grouped by career status. F. Discouraged by cost of open access funding grouped by grant funding. G. Open access publishing attitudes among grant funded researchers.

Fig. 4

Data and information management practices. A. Respondents who have written a data management plan grouped by career status. B. Respondents who use or maintain data management guidelines in their research or laboratory settings grouped by career status. C. Respondents who share protocols, code or software grouped by department. D. Respondents who use open-source software as part of their work grouped by department. E. Use of publicly available data grouped by career status. F. Frequency of data sharing among respondents. G. Repositories or locations where respondents share data.

Fig. 5

Assessment practices grouped by academic status. A. Percent of respondents who monitor their number of total citations for their work. B. Percent of respondents who monitor their H-index. C. Percent of respondents who monitor Altmetrics for their publications. D. Percent of respondents who use academic social networks such as ResearchGate or Academia.edu. E. Percent of respondents who use Twitter or other social media platforms to communicate about their research. F. Respondent awareness of departmental assessment of number of publications per individual for career advancement. G. Respondent awareness of departmental assessment of author order in publications for career advancement.