Survey Results – Scholarly Communication Practices

SC1 – Making One’s Work Openly Accessible

The question lists 5 types of research output. More researchers put their articles (published or pre-prints) online for access; fewer archive other scholarly output for open access.

SC results

SC2 – Where to Post Output for Open Access

Among those posting their papers online, HKUST IR is one of their platforms, comparable with Open Access disciplinary repository in popularity.

SC results

SC3 – Perceived Usefulness of SC Services

SC results

The question lists 9 potential services; the respondents rated how useful each of them is perceived to be. The listed services are:

Assistance with obtaining permission(s) to use copyrighted works for instructional purposes
Assistance with depositing your scholarly research in the HKUST Institutional Repository or an open access disciplinary repository (such as PubMed, SSRN, etc.)
Advice about intellectual property or author’s rights issues (such as retaining copyrights for your publications or fair use of copyrighted works)
Identifying publishers that are willing to comply with open access policies mandated by your institution and/or funding source (such as research funded by the RGC, CAS, Croucher, etc.)
Advice about open access publishing options tailored for your department or field
Online guides or tutorials about copyright or intellectual property issues
Data management, preservation, or storage planning
Consultation on or review of author agreement terms
Workshops or seminars on copyright or intellectual property issues tailored for your department or field

Overall, the most welcomed service is Assistance with obtaining permission(s) to use copyrighted works for instructional purposes. Many respondents also rated Assistance with depositing your scholarly research in the HKUST Institutional Repository or an open access disciplinary repository as useful.

SC4 – Experience with Negotiating Author’s Rights with Publisher

Only 5% of the respondents have ever negotiated with publisher regarding copyright terms.

SC5 – Point of View about Negotiating Author’s Rights

Among those who have never negotiated copyright terms with publishers, about 1/4 did not do so due to lack of knowledge on copyright terms, while another 1/4 attribute that to not knowing such options.

I do not have the sufficient knowledge or expertise about copyright terms to negotiate with publishers	25%
I was not aware about the option to negotiate with publishers over copyright terms	24%
To contribute to the scholarly literature in my field or subdiscipline, I have to agree to publishers’ copyright terms in order to publish my work in specific journals or by specific presses	19%
I do not care about negotiating copyright terms for my author agreement(s)	14%
For tenure, merit, or other promotion decisions, I have to agree to publishers’ copyright terms in order to publish my work in specific journals or by specific presses	10%
Negotiating with publishers would not be worth it	7%
Other (please explain):	1%
Total	100%

SC6 – Assistance with Negotiating Author Rights

For the few respondents who negotiated terms with publishers, most of them got assistance from the publishers.

SC7 – Understanding of Institution’s Open Access Stance

When it comes to understanding of the institution’s policy or stance on publishing journal articles via a freely available repository, 38% of the respondents chose Do not understand at all.

SC8 – View on Open Access Mandate

Given different types of research output, the respondents rated their support on a mandate to make them openly accessible, using a scale of 6 (Highly support) to 1 (Highly oppose). There is a stronger support to making journal and conference papers publicly accessible.

SC results