Trust in open publishing practices

Abstract

Background Scientific publishing is a critical part of scientific enquiry; individual excellence is often measured by the number of publications, and the journals in which these publications appeared count enormously. Open Science practices, such as open access, open review, random gatekeeping and shared governance, are implemented in various journals and publishing platforms, providing alternative ways of publishing. But how are these practices trusted? Methods We have created a theoretical framework for trust in the context of academic publishing and investigated to what extent Dutch researchers find these ways of publishing trustworthy. We have performed a survey to compare the trustworthiness of novel and classical ways of publishing and conducted multiple interviews to figure out why scientists find certain publishing practices more attractive than others. Results In the academic publishing system, we have identified various interdependent relationships between stakeholders in which there is a certain level of uncertainty; therefore, we can assume that trust plays a relevant role here. Based on the literature review and interview results, trustworthiness turned out to be one of the most important factors in choosing journals to read relevant scientific discoveries and to publish papers. The survey results suggest that some aspects of open publishing, such as open access, open peer review and shared governance are well-known and widely accepted and trusted amongst the participants, while others, like participatory peer review or random gatekeeping, were less known. In these cases, many researchers formulated concerns about the competence of the randomly assigned gatekeeper and the reviewers coming from the wider community. Conclusions Our results highlight a shift in social norms within the Dutch scientific community, formulating critical voices towards the profit-oriented nature of classical scientific publishing and highlighting the importance of open access to scientific results, supporting open peer review and publishers with shared governance.