A survey on Scholarly publishing Preferences in open access by the Indian Authors | The Journal of Electronic Publishing

Abstract:  The study aims atfinding author preferences in publishing on the Open Access (OA) platform bythe Indian scholarly community. 300 responses were obtained from five topranked Indian life science research institutions. Absolute respondents opined that their research work to reach maximum readers and 88.70% indicate OA articles can be circulated without restrictions. 90.67% felt no increase of plagiarism due to OA and no significant variation among institutions on aspects of OA publishing except for reaching scholars (Chi-square=11.010 & P value=.026).Majority of respondents preferred high impact as a choice of publication significantly also brand value favoured significantly. Least significance foundon preference on diamond OA with X2 of14.596; P=.006. Those who can’t afford to pay APC were statistically different among institutions. A diverse opinion was observed between the institutions, for free and unrestricted access to the publications for end-users (Chi-square=11.722 and a P value of .000) and author disliking publishing in paid journals (Chi-square=12.116 and a P value of.017). Regarding the author reasons to publish in OAJ and attracting more citations encourage authors to publish was on-par among the institutions. A statistically significant difference observed among authors who quoted reasons for publication that free and freedom for end-users (X2=11.722; p=0.0001). The study recommends libraries and LIS professionals to create awareness on OA, its publishing policies, platforms, OA funding agencies and encourage by making budgetary provision for supporting APC.