Publishing, Open Access, and Copyright

This section features survey results related to publishing, open access publishing, and copyright. These questions were presented only to graduate students and faculty members. 

Publishing Activity

To explore needs related to publishing, the survey asked questions about general needs and about U-M Library’s publishing service.

Many faculty and grad student respondents had either published or planned to publish within the next year.

• Of 1624 respondents, 94% of faculty and 57% of graduate students have published scholarly works.

• Of 406 respondents who had not yet published, 77% of faculty and 80% of graduate students plan to publish in the next year.

Those who had published were asked about their publication activity. Due to length, this was presented as two questions. Results are presented in the table below.

U-M Library Publishing

Among respondents, awareness of library support for publishing was very low. Over 70% of scholars did not know about library publishing consultations, and less than 3% had used this service. However, over 90% of those who had used this service found it helpful or mostly helpful.

Open Access (OA) Publishing

Open access (OA) publishing involves sharing research and scholarly outputs so that they can be accessed by all online without cost. The University and the U-M Library are involved in supporting U-M scholars who wish to publish OA.

Among our respondents, over 80% of faculty and graduate student scholars have published their work using an OA approach, or plan to. However, there were broad concerns about the publication fees that often accompany OA publishing. 

U-M Library Open Access Support

When asked about the open-access publishing discounts for U-M authors listed on the library website, the majority of respondents were not aware of these resources.

• 32% of faculty members were aware.

• 18% of graduate students were aware.

Additionally, of those who were aware of these discounts, some noted that negotiated deals with publishers did not benefit them, due to their particular area of research not being represented.

In open response questions regarding support for research, many scholars wrote about frustration with having to provide or seek funding to publish their work OA. Following are two representative quotes:

• "Open access is the biggest issue I have currently - figuring out how much it will cost, when it is required, etc. A lot of this is journal/publisher specific, but anything the library can do to help would be very much appreciated!"

• "Open access publication is very expensive and I wish the UM Library can help us get more discounts and discounts in more journals."

Copyright

To explore needs related to copyright help, the survey asked questions about general need for information as well as about U-M Library’s copyright services.

Faculty and graduate students were asked “In the last three years, approximately how many times have you desired copyright information, but were not able to find all the information you needed?”

39% of those working in creative areas and nearly 34% of those in the humanities reported they were unable to find needed copyright information at least once in the past three years.

Additionally, among those who had been unable to find needed information, between 10% (in Engineering) and 19% (among those doing creative work) reported they had experienced substantial or complete roadblocks in their work due to a lack of information about copyright issues. 

Q: In the most recent occurrence, did a lack of information about copyright limit your ability to achieve your goal? (Shown are pooled percentages for responses for “in a substantial way” and “completely (unable to continue as planned.”)

• Creative Work 19%

• Hum 18%

• Soc Sci 16%

• Nat Sci 11%

• Engin 10%

• Med Health 15%

• Prof Fields 16%

U-M Library Copyright Services

164 faculty and graduate student respondents indicated they had used U-M Library copyright services, and a majority of those who had used the service reported it was consistently or completely helpful. 

However, most were not aware that the library has a copyright office that can assist in this area; lack of awareness about the library’s copyright services ranged from 52% (among those doing creative work) to 77% (among those in the health sciences).