On the tips of their tongues: Authors and their views on scholarly publishing

Abstract

The paper presents the results of an international questionnaire survey of the attitudes of senior authors towards scholarly publishing. It was commissioned by the Publishers Association (PA) and the International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers (STM). A total of 5,513 authors participated. The questionnaire included 22 closed questions and one open-ended question that 1,943 authors used to freely express their views. Using QSR N6 textual analysis software, their comments were processed and themes extracted. The main concerns of the authors were the peer-review process, faster publishing, better access to journals, journal prices, and issues related to electronic publishing.