[EIFLoa] Results of the SOAP Survey: A Preliminary Overview of the Situation in EIFL Partner Countries

[Iryna Kuchma]

Dear colleagues,

The SOAP (Study of Open Access Publishing) project has run a large-scale
survey of the attitudes of researchers on, and the experiences with, open
access publishing. In the SOAP Symposium
<http://project-soap.eu/soap-symposium/>on 13 January 2011 in Berlin, the
results of the SOAP Survey were made publicly available. "Highlights from
the SOAP project survey. What Scientists Think about Open Access
Publishing<http://arxiv.org/abs/1101.5260>"
article is available in arXiv presenting preliminary analysis of the survey
responses. To allow a maximal re-use of the information collected by this
survey, the data were released
<http://project-soap.eu/highlights-and-data-of-the-soap-survey-now-available/>under
a CC0 waiver, so to allow libraries, publishers, funding agencies and
academics to further analyse risks and opportunities, drivers and barriers,
in the transition to open access publishing.

SURFfoundation made the first overview of the SOAP survey results, tailored
to the situation in the
Netherlands<http://www.openaccess.nl/images/pdf/soap_nl.pdf>.
Marnix van Berchum and Annemiek van der Kuil selected the questions and the
selection should be considered as a first attempt to analyse the SOAP data
for the Dutch situation. Further analysis could include different questions,
and comparisons with other countries. SURFfoundation also invited others to
make use of the SOAP data, to make their own analyses.

We followed the approach of the SURFfoundation and made the first overview
of the SOAP survey results, tailored to the situation in 11 EIFL partner
countries: Bulgaria, China, Egypt, Nigeria, Poland, Russia, Serbia,
Slovenia, South Africa, Thailand and Ukraine.

*Results of the SOAP Survey: A Preliminary Overview of the Situation in EIFL
Partner Countries *[pdf]
http://www.eifl.net/news/results-soap-survey-eifl-partner-countries<http://www.eifl.net/news/results-soap-survey-eifl-partner-countries>

*Preliminary conclusions *

Based on the results described in our overview, we can make the following
preliminary conclusions about the situation in 11 EIFL partner countries:

   - About *86%* of researchers *are convinced that open access publishing
   is beneficial to their research field directly improving the way scientific
   community work and providing the benefits outside the scientific community -
   public good benefits*.


   - About *63%* of researchers *published open access articles*. 51% of
   researchers published *"between one and five open access articles"*;
   about 7% of researchers published *"between six and ten open access
   articles"* and almost 5% - *"more than ten open access articles"*.


   - The respondents listed *top five factors* when making choices about
   publishing in a journal: *prestige* (*prestige/perceived quality of the
   journal*), journal *impact factor*, *speed of publication* of the
   journal, *importance for career* (*importance of the journal for academic
   promotion, tenure or assessment*), and *relevance *of the journal *for
   the community*.

"The SOAP survey, the largest to touch issues in open access publishing, has
collected a large amount of answer across disciplines and around the world.
While the data sample cannot be held to represent the opinions of all
scholars active in all countries and in all disciplines, it does present a
cross-section of attitudes on open access publishing which were previously
not analysed." (From the Conclusions of S. Dallmeier-Tiessen et al.
Highlights from the SOAP project survey. What Scientists Think about Open
Access Publishing <http://arxiv.org/abs/1101.5260>)

We encourage you to re-use the data collected by the SOAP survey to make
your own analysis for your countries and regions. And we are looking forward
to your questions and comments about our preliminary overview.

Best wishes,

Iryna Kuchma

EIFL Open Access programme manager

www.eifl.net
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