Rowland, Nicholas and Huntington in their highly interesting and well
readable studies report(
http://docserver.ingentaconnect.com/deliver/connect/alpsp/09531513/v17n4/s2.pd
?expires=1170285288&id=35032920&titleid=885&accname=Guest+User&checksum=8045F53
B53A367808DA20A63498577E) that there are not just scientists out there.
“Older, more senior, authors seem much more wedded to the
traditional subscription print-based model than their younger peers.
These authors are more likely to self-publish on the web and to feel
more positively towards the open access movement.
This is even more evident, when looking at the various clusters in one of
Rowlands et al successive studies.
http://www.publishing.ucl.ac.uk/papers/2006Rowlands_Nicholas.pdf
This study also includes figures of change re open access from 2004 to
2006
It does seems obvious, that
OA, essentially the possibility of self archiving, is not very well known
among scientists:
“11. Authors are not at all knowledgeable about institutional
repositories: less than 10% declared that they know ‘a lot’
or ‘quite a lot’ about this development, and there are signs
of a dragging of feet: a significant minority (38%) of those expressing
an opinion declare a clear unwillingness to deposit their articles in an
institutional repository.
Looking at the author population as whole, two clusters of researchers
with especially positive views about open access and the need for reform
of the current system are evident. The most radicalized group (‘OA
Enthusiasts’) makes up about 8% of the total population. This group
is characterized by its youth, its geographical composition (with very
strong representation from Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe) and a
tendency towards more applied and clinical ends of the research spectrum.
For a very large majority of mid-career and older researchers in the
‘Anglosphere mainstream’, open access issues are not at all
high on their list of priorities.
Not so far anyway.
Typically for a young fledgling field, PR is needed to educate the
scientists of their possibilities, and with that and pressure from an
increasing number of research institutions, the acceptance of oa among
scientists will grow.
Donat Agosti
http://rana.lbl.gov
Received on Wed Jan 31 2007 - 23:54:59 GMT