23 May 2019
A few months ago, Editage released a report based on a global author survey capturing the views of almost 7000 researchers on different aspects of scholarly publishing. In the last question of the survey, researchers were asked to provide comments on what they would like to change about the academic publishing system. As a qualitative follow-up to the survey report, Editage has now released a report analysing comments received in response to this question. Over 90% of respondents who said changes are needed in the system provided supporting comments.
Problems that researchers want addressed included delays in publication, peer review quality and processes, high publishing-related costs, complexity of journal guidelines and systems, and inadequate adoption of open access. Other themes which emerged included different types of bias in publishing, problems specifically faced by early career researchers, and lack of transparency in the system.
The report, 'What changes would researchers like to see in academic publishing?' is available for download.