Scientists and researchers appreciate the speed by which online journals can distribute new findings to their colleagues and the academic world, but they fear non-traditional publication can affect their chances of promotion and tenure, according to new study released today by professors at UALR and the University of Munich.

The study also shows that academicians are concerned about how long their research will be available online. But they are extremely positive about new media opportunities that open access to scientific findings once exclusively available only in costly journals whose subscriptions libraries are finding increasingly difficult to afford.

Despite these positive attitudes, the study by Dr. Rolf Wigand, who holds the Maulden-Entergy Chair at UALR’s Department of Information Science within the College of Information Science and Systems Engineering, and Munich Professor Thomas Hess and his colleagues showed that researchers are reluctant to publish their own work in open access outlets.

An article about the research will be featured in the “Science Scope” section of the next issue of Science magazine. One reason is that 60 percent of those questioned believe on-line publication impacts promotion and tenure, and they are reluctant to publish their own research within those open-access outlets, even though open access publications have higher speed of publication and citation rates.

Notwithstanding the speed that brings new research to the marketplace and the importance of providing easy access to research for scientists in developing countries, 51 percent of those questioned said open access publishing is not well-known enough to use it as a medium for publishing their own work. In addition, 58 percent perceive the impact factor of open access publishing as a barrier and 53 percent think open access publications lack a guarantee of long-term availability of research.

“This suggests a gap between the high positive attitude toward open access publication and the low-level of use as well as future intention to use open access media. It is interesting to note that accessing open-access literature is already roughly twice as common as publishing this way,” Wigand said.