Perceptions, preferences of scholarly publishing in open access routes

Purpose The purpose of this study is to know the various factors librarians consider while selecting open access (OA) journal for publication, and to know the challenges librarians face with OA journal publishing. Design/methodology/approach Online questionnaire was designed to collect data using SurveyMonkey software from 335 academic librarians in 57 institutions (Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education) in Nigeria. Findings The findings of the study revealed that majority of the academic librarians are aware of the gold and green publishing routes, while the majority of academic librarians are not aware of the diamond publishing route. The study also revealed that when considering where to publish, reputation and impact factor of journal were rated as very important among the factors that inform their choice of OA. The study further revealed that academic librarians have little or no knowledge about the existence of institutional repositories in their institutions, and only a few actual use institutional repositories and ResearchGate to self-archive their publications. The majority of the academic librarians agreed that author fees (Article Processing Charges) and low impact factor of journal are barriers to publishing in OA journals. Training on OA publishing is recommended for librarians to increase their knowledge and confidence to discuss OA with faculty members in future. Practical implications Knowledge of authors’ attitude toward OA publishing models will help OA advocates focus on the factors that are meaningful that are raised in this study. Originality/value The study is an original research work that investigated academic librarians’ perception and engagement with OA publishing as they lead the OA campaign in their institutions.