Behavioral Reluctance in Adopting Open Access Publishing: Insights From a Goal-Directed Perspective

Abstract

Despite growing awareness of the benefits of large-scale open access publishing, individual researchers seem reluctant to adopt this behavior, thereby slowing down the evolution toward a new scientific culture. We outline and apply a goal-directed framework of behavior causation to shed light on this type of behavioral reluctance and to organize and suggest possible intervention strategies. The framework explains behavior as the result of a cycle of events starting with the detection of a discrepancy between a goal and a status quo and the selection of behavior to reduce this discrepancy. We list various factors that may hinder this cycle and thus contribute to behavioral reluctance. After that, we highlight potential remedies to address each of the identified barriers. We thereby hope to point out new ways to think about behavioral reluctances in general, and in relation to open access publishing in particular.

Value dissonance in research(er) assessment: Individual and institutional priorities in review, promotion and tenure criteria

“…Bührer and Wroblewski (2019) found that "researchers working in an institutional environment that systematically supports the practice of RRI are more active in RRI practices". Köster et al (2021) explain such dynamics as deriving from a mismatch between injunctive and descriptive norms. Descriptive norms are "what most others do", and they contrast with injunctive norms, "what most others approve or disapprove" (Cialdini et al 1990).…”

“…Since, when faced with a clash between injunctive and descriptive norms, people's behaviours tend to follow the latter (Farrow et al 2017), increasing uptake of open and responsible practices faces somewhat of a "collective action problem" (Olson 1971). Köster et al (2021) suggest that a key answer is to alter behaviours through revised incentive structures which bring goals of openness and selfinterest into alignment.…”

“…In fact, we would suggest that addressing these perceived shortcomings could play an important role in the broader reform of research assessment to better value open and responsible practices. By foregrounding greater respect for community-binding values like collegiality and mentorship, negative effects of currently dominant norms of hypercompetition and self-interestedness which run counter to these practices could be mitigated (Köster et al 2021).…”

Special Education Researchers’ Knowledge, Attitudes, and Reported Use of Open Science Practices

“…We used the theory of planned behavior to guide adaptation of the OSS survey and provide a lens for understanding researcher intention to engage in open science practices. It has been argued that more holistic assessments of behavior are needed to better understand why some researchers engage in practices and why some do not (Köster et al, 2021;Norris & O'Connor, 2019;Robson et al, 2021). Indeed, given the complexity of behavior change in academia, using theory may help parse out the active ingredients of open science uptake.…”

The goal-directed model as an alternative to reductionist and network approaches of psychopathology

“…The suboptimal behavior (and affect) in mental disorders can be understood as problems in one or more steps of this cycle [15,16]. Aggression (as in impulsive disorders) may be selected as a strategy (assimilation) to solve the discrepancy with a personal goal (e.g., winning an argument), but people may fail to detect that this behavior is itself discrepant with another goal (e.g., to keep their relationship intact).…”