The Transition Toward Open Access: The University Of Hong Kong Experience

Abstract

Purpose While open access (OA) offers an alternative to the unsustainable pricing of serials and supports a core value of ensuring openness to knowledge, the perceived value of the impact of OA journals is still lacking consensus among stakeholders. This study is based on the analysis of the University of Hong Kong (HKU) research publication data within four broad disciplines – health science, life science, physical science and social science – and the purpose of this paper is to understand the perspectives and preferences of academic researchers around OA. The findings are useful to libraries in shaping their strategies for meeting the rising challenges of scholarly publishing. Design/methodology/approach Article publication data from HKU have been collected and analyzed with the purpose of exploring general OA trends and understanding authors’ incentives for publishing in OA journals. Findings The explosion in the number of OA journals in recent years has not only impacted on how libraries manage contents and budgets, but also on academic researchers’ choice of journals for submitting their articles for publication. This study conducted at the HKU indicated that academic researchers have a gradual tendency to shift toward publishing their work in OA journals, and interestingly, the shifts are to some extent discipline specific. Research limitations/implications The OA marketplace is currently undergoing a state of flux. The OA model of funding through article publication charges, process of peer review and reputation in the marketplace are under rapid development. Practical implications As OA journals take up a sizeable market share of the scholarly journal publishing market, libraries need to stay abreast of developments in the OA sector in order to respond to researcher needs. Understanding the thinking behind researcher’s decisions in choosing venue for submission of publications helps to advance research support services which the library offers. Social implications The change in researcher behavior prompted by the gravitation toward sharing of research contents in scholarly communication networks and broader choice of OA journals have resulted in a positive growth of OA articles publishing at the HKU. Originality/value This study is based on actual HKU publication data in the past ten years, and it is useful for understanding HKU researchers’ attitudes toward OA publications and in particular the longitudinal trends in shifting toward OA publishing within the context of the university’s open policy and within the global OA landscape.