US scientists wary of author publication fees | Times Higher Education (THE)

peter.suber's bookmarks 2022-10-27

Summary:

"But the AAAS, in outlining its survey results, warned of risks from that approach. “While open access has tremendous benefits,” the AAAS said, the expected reliance on APCs “has created concerning unintended consequences”.

Among its key findings, the AAAS survey showed that about two-thirds of researchers already had paid an APC. Of those who had paid APCs and answered a question about where the money came from, 70 per cent said they used grant money. Yet among those who had paid an APC, a slight majority described the experience as difficult or very difficult, with the problem more pronounced at smaller institutions, the AAAS said.

Also, large majorities of the researchers using APCs made sacrifices that included foregoing purchases of materials, equipment or tools, and not attending workshops or conferences relevant to their work, the AAAS said.

Women were more than twice as likely as men not to attend workshops and conferences to afford their APCs, it said. Among 89 institutions represented in the survey by librarians and administrators, only about a third said they had money to cover APC payments by students and other authors needing it. A full 15 per cent of those researchers said they paid APCs out of their own personal funds....

Dr Parikh warned that other publishers with for-profit models have set up families of journals so that they can lure scientists into paying the APC with the hope of getting published in their top-tier journal, but then keep the APC and publish the paper in one of their smaller journals.

That system also creates an “unholy alliance with the tenure-track process”, by fuelling the incentives for scientists to publish more papers, Dr Parikh said."

Link:

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/us-scientists-wary-author-publication-fees-under-biden-order

From feeds:

Open Access Tracking Project (OATP) » peter.suber's bookmarks

Tags:

oa.new oa.usa oa.ostp oa.policies oa.funders oa.policies.funders oa.mandates oa.data oa.repositories oa.green oa.embargoes oa.fees oa.paywalled oa.aaas oa.surveys oa.funders oa.no-fee

Date tagged:

10/27/2022, 12:58

Date published:

10/27/2022, 08:57