Division of Scientific Information and Public Policy, Center for Infectious Disease Education and Research (CiDER), Osaka University, Osaka, Japan.
Research Center on Ethical, Legal and Social Issues, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan.
Genes Cells. 2023 May;28(5):333-337. doi: 10.1111/gtc.13015. Epub 2023 Mar 6.
Since the 1990s, journals have become increasingly online and open access. In fact, about 50% of articles published in 2021 were open access. The use of preprints (i.e., non-peer-reviewed articles) has also increased. However, there is limited awareness of these concepts among academics. Therefore, we conducted a questionnaire-based survey among members of the Molecular Biology Society of Japan. The survey was conducted between September 2022 and October 2022, with 633 respondents, 500 of whom (79.0%) were faculty members. In total, 478 (76.6%) respondents had published articles as open access, and 571 (91.5%) wanted to publish their articles in open access. Although 540 (86.5%) respondents knew about preprints, only 183 (33.9%) had posted preprints before. In the open-ended section of the questionnaire survey, several comments were made about the cost burdens associated with open access and the difficulty of how academic preprints are handled. Although open access is widespread, and recognition of preprints is increasing, some issues remain that need to be addressed. Academic and institutional support, and transformative agreement may help reduce the cost burden. Guidelines for handling preprints in academia are also important for responding to changes in the research environment.
自 20 世纪 90 年代以来，期刊越来越倾向于在线和开放获取。事实上，2021 年发表的文章约有 50%是开放获取的。预印本（即未经同行评审的文章）的使用也有所增加。然而，学术界对这些概念的认识有限。因此，我们在日本分子生物学学会成员中进行了一项基于问卷调查的调查。调查于 2022 年 9 月至 10 月进行，共有 633 名受访者，其中 500 名（79.0%）为教职员工。共有 478 名（76.6%）受访者以开放获取的方式发表过文章，571 名（91.5%）希望以开放获取的方式发表文章。虽然 540 名受访者（86.5%）知道预印本，但只有 183 名（33.9%）之前发布过预印本。在问卷调查的开放式部分，有几个评论提到了开放获取相关的成本负担以及学术预印本处理的困难。尽管开放获取已经很普遍，而且对预印本的认识也在增加，但仍有一些问题需要解决。学术和机构支持以及变革性协议可能有助于减轻成本负担。处理学术界预印本的指南对于应对研究环境的变化也很重要。
