[BOAI] PEER Behavioural Research - Final Report

[Peter Suber]

[Forwarding from the PEER research project, via the Am-Sci OA Forum.
 --Peter Suber.]

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News release – PEER Publishing and the Ecology of European Research****

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6 October 2011****

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PEER Behavioural Research: Final Report on authors and users vis-a-vis
journals and repositories now available at: ****

http://www.peerproject.eu/reports/****

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The PEER Behavioural Research Team from ****Loughborough**
**University****(Department of Information Science & LISU) has
completed the behavioural
research commissioned by PEER. The research which consisted of two phases
adopted a mixed methods approach consisting of surveys, focus groups and an
interdisciplinary workshop and was carried out between April 2009 and August
2011.****

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The specific aim of the behavioural research was to understand the extent to
which authors and users are aware of Open Access (OA), the different ways of
achieving it, and the (de)motivating factors that influence its uptake.****

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The report integrates findings from the first phase of the research with the
more in depth.****

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focus of phase two of the research, which drilled down into some of the key
findings of the phase 1 results.****

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Key conclusions:****

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*Over the period of Phases 1 and 2 of the behavioural research the increase
in the number of researchers who reported placing a version of their journal
article(s) into an Open Access Repository was negligible.****

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*Researchers who associated Open Access with 'self-archiving' ****

were in the minority. Open Access is more likely to be associated with
'self-archiving' (Green Road) by researchers in the Physical sciences &
mathematics and the Social sciences, humanities & arts, than those in the
Life sciences and Medical sciences who are more likely to associate Open
Access with Open Access Journals (Gold Road).****

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*There is anecdotal evidence that some researchers consider making journal
articles accessible via Open Access to be beyond their remit.****

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*Authors tend to be favourable to Open Access and receptive to the benefits
of self-archiving in terms of greater readership and wider dissemination of
their research, with the caveat that self-archiving does not compromise the
pivotal role of the published journal article.****

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*Readers have concerns about the authority of article content and the extent
to which it can be cited when the version they have accessed is not the
final published version. These concerns are more prevalent where the purpose
of reading is to produce a published journal article, and are perceived as
less of an issue for other types of reading purpose.****

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*Academic researchers have a conservative set of attitudes, perceptions and
behaviours towards the scholarly communication system and do not desire
fundamental changes in the way research is currently disseminated and
published.****

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*Open Access Repositories are perceived by researchers as complementary to,
rather than replacing, current forums for disseminating and publishing
research.****

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The full report is available from: ****

http://www.peerproject.eu/reports/****

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PEER Behavioural Research Team****

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Dr Jenny Fry, Professor Charles Oppenheim, Dr Stephen Probets Department of
Information Science, Loughborough University, Claire Creaser, Helen
Greenwood, Valerie Spezi, Sonya White LISU, Loughborough University.****

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For enquiries relating to Behavioural Research or other research areas
within PEER, please contact Chris Armbruster: ****

chris.armbruster at yahoo.com****

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For other enquiries relating to PEER, please e-mail: ****

peer at stm-assoc.org****

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About PEER:****

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PEER (Publishing and the Ecology of European Research), supported by the EC
eContentplus programme, is investigating the effects of the large-scale,
systematic depositing of authors' final peer-reviewed manuscripts (so called
Green Open Access or stage-two research output) on reader access, author
visibility, and journal viability, as well as on the broader ecology of
European research. The project is a collaboration between publishers,
repositories and researchers and will last from September 2008 to May 2012.*
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For further information on PEER, visit the website: ****

http://www.peerproject.eu/****

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PEER Partners: International Association of Scientific, Technical and
Medical Publishers (STM), the European Science Foundation, Goettingen State
and University Library, the Max Planck Society, INRIA, SURF Foundation and
University of Bielefeld.****

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STM publishers participating in PEER: BMJ Publishing Group; Cambridge
University Press; EDP Sciences; Elsevier; IOP Publishing; Nature Publishing
Group; Oxford University Press; Portland Press; Sage Publications; Springer;
Taylor & Francis Group; Wiley-Blackwell.****

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PEER repositories: eSciDoc.PubMan.PEER, Max Planck Digital Library (MPDL),
Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der Wissenschaften e. V. (MPG); HAL,
CNRS & Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique
(INRIA); Goettingen State and University Library (UGOE); SSOAR - Social
Sciences Open Access repository (GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social
Sciences); TARA - Trinity College Dublin (TCD); University Library of
Debrecen (ULD) Long term preservation archive: ****

e-depot, Koninklijke Bibliotheek.****

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*******

______________________________
Barbara Bayer-Schur M.A.
Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen
PEER - Publishing and the Ecology of European Research

Tel. +49 551 39 5242
**bayer-schur at sub.uni-goettingen.de
**www.peerproject.eu ****

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