How do you perceive the quality standards and publication practices of the publishers you publish with?
The Landesinitiative openaccess.nrw would like to learn more about the assessment of scientists and researchers at the 42 DH.NRW universities and colleges regarding the quality assurance of scientific publishers (and journals) and their choice of publication venues. The focus of this survey was set on quality assurance in order to shed light on the cost/performance ratio perceived in the scientific community on the basis of the data collected. This questionnaire can be completed with reference to one of the following publishers: De Gruyter, Elsevier, MDPI, Springer Nature, Frontiers, Taylor and Francis, Wiley.
You are welcome to complete the survey more than once if you wish to provide feedback on several publishers.
The basis for the selection of these seven publishers are the publication reports of oa.nrw, which were sent to the universities and colleges of the DH.NRW in fall 2023. In the determination of the publication output for the Ministry of Culture and Science in NRW, a strong use of these publishers by universities and colleges has been demonstrated.
Target group of the survey:
This questionnaire is aimed at scientists (professors, habilitation candidates, post-doctoral researchers, doctoral students and research assistants) at the 42 DH.NRW universities and colleges. This survey is not aimed at students at the 42 DH.NRW universities. Please do not complete this survey if you belong to this status group.
Aims of the survey:
Your participation forms an important component in achieving the following goals: 1) To gain academic-specific insight into the selection and use of publishers. 2) To provide information on the quality of (differently priced) publication services and to reshape the discussion in libraries and own campuses around these practices - in this context, the questionnaire offers the opportunity to give feedback on the practices of publishers!
Notes on technical details/anonymity:
The survey is conducted without collecting data about the situation of the individual universities. The survey takes 2-15 minutes, depending on your individual points of contact with the specific publisher. The data will be analyzed anonymously. While answering the questionnaire, IP addresses are processed but not retained permanently. In order to better classify the use of publishers according to the academic field and career level, only your subject specialization and your current status at the university are requested. This information is voluntary. Participation in this survey is voluntary. You can terminate the survey at any time without giving reasons and without any disadvantage to you.
Thank you for your participation and support!
The Landesinitiative openaccess.nrw would like to thank Dr. Tobias Pohlmann (University of Kassel) for the opportunity to make use of his survey on MDPI as an orientation as well as structural support and to adapt it to the context of NRW and several publishers.
There are 23 questions in this survey.