Results of a study on publishing habits and information acquisition with regard to open access

In October 2003 the DFG signed the Berlin Declaration on Open Access in the Sciences and Humanities, an initiative that encourages the promotion of open access. In order to determine the acceptance and use of open access publications in the German scientific community, the DFG designed a survey to identify the publishing habits of researchers and their means of accessing information. This data was also used to reveal whether discipline-specific trends exist.

The results of the survey will be used to determine how the DFG can strengthen its efforts to promote open access.

The study was conducted on behalf of the DFG by the Society for Empirical Studies in in Kassel. Approximately 1,000 researchers from all scientific disciplines took part in the study.

• Publication Strategies in Transformation? Results of a study on publishing habits and information acquisition with regard to open access
• DFG-Infobrief 02/2005: The infobrief presents the main results of the survey
• Roads to Knowledge: Activities for Promoting Open Access by the DFG