A&A community survey reveals strong support for quality, fairness and human oversight in scientific publishing

"Nearly 3,000 astronomers from 69 countries responded to the A&A community survey on trends and challenges in scientific publishing. The survey, conducted in 2025, explored community attitudes towards journal selection, peer review, Open Access, research assessment and artificial intelligence. Its findings suggest that researchers value credibility over speed, fairness over profit, and human judgement over automation.

The findings have recently been published in Astronomy & Astrophysics (A&A) in a new editorial, A&A community survey on the future of scientific publishing, authored by members of the A&A Board of Directors, the journal’s editorial leadership team, and EDP Sciences....

The survey revealed broad support for Open Access as a principle, alongside significant concerns about the widespread use of article processing charges (APCs).

Many respondents reported that high APCs had prevented them from publishing in their preferred journals. Researchers expressed a preference for collective funding approaches, including governmental support and institutional agreements, rather than author-pays models.

These findings are especially relevant for A&A, which publishes Open Access through the Subscribe to Open (S2O) model, offering an alternative to APC-funded publishing."