Taylor & Francis' Research and Business Intelligence Department recently conducted a survey of the Taylor & Francis author community for their views on Open Access publishing and their level of involvement with it. This survey, circulated in the final weeks of 2012 leading into early 2013, received over 14,700 responses. This feedback will help publishers understand authors' needs and inform the development of the publisher's policies, both in terms of OA, and more widely.
According to Dr David Green, Global Publishing Director at Taylor & Francis, the results of this survey are important, as they represent the views of a wide sample of authors across the disciplines in relation to Open Access following announcement of the RCUK and Wellcome mandates after the publication of the Finch report in the UK.
The survey offers an insight into current thinking of authors globally across the whole range of subject areas from science to the arts. Authors were asked about licensing, reuse, peer review and metrics. The survey noted that 79 percent of Taylor & Francis authors still want traditional rigorous peer review of their work, all or most of the time when publishing OA. Sixty eight percent of authors are happy for their work to be reused for non-commercial gain. Further, the survey noted that it is important to 70 percent of authors that the general public can access and read their work.
