A longitudinal study of scholars attitudes and behaviors toward open‐access journal publishing

Abstract This research applies statistical time series analysis to examine the changing pattern of scholars' attitudes toward open‐access (OA) journal publishing from the early 1990s. By synthesizing survey results in existing studies, this research focuses on representative aspects of the attitudes and behaviors recorded through the years. It finds that although an increase in the publishing and awareness rates of scholars with regard to OA journals has been observed, scholars have been consistently concerned with the low prestige of such journals and their lack of peer review, which is not the case in practice. It is hoped that the findings will provide useful information for the improvement of OA advocacy.