Understanding Author Choices in the Current Conservation Publishing Landscape

Abstract

Publishing in academic journals helps disseminate scientific research and contributes to a researcher's academic career. Conservation is interdisciplinary and, as such, there are a diversity of practitioners, scientists, and others who contribute to the conservation literature. Currently, little is known about how different journal attributes impact an author's choice of where to publish or how they may act as barriers to publishing in conservation-related journals. Here, we used a Discrete Choice Experiment to determine the interplay between seven attributes and assess journal choice between three demographic groups. Across 1038 respondents, we found that each group exhibited different publishing preferences. Only two attributes showed a consistent response across groups: cost to publish negatively impacted journal choice, including for those in high-income countries, and authors had a consistent preference for double-blind review. Based on our findings, we provide several recommendations to conservation-related journals to reduce barriers to publishing and ultimately benefit conservation science.