To Open or Not to Open: An Exploration of Faculty Decisions to Publish Open-Access Articles

Abstract

Introduction: Faculty face numerous pressures as they decide whether to publish articles open access (OA). This pilot study investigated the extent to which School of Education faculty members’ engagement with OA was influenced by promotion and tenure (P&T) and how this influence related to other intrinsic, extrinsic, and contextual factors. Methods: This exploratory, sequential, mixed-method study adapted Social Exchange Theory to understand faculty engagement with OA article publication. The study used a quantitative survey followed by qualitative interviews and focus groups. Results: Participants reported that P&T had substantive influence over faculty practices regarding OA. Connected factors included beliefs about OA journal quality, colleagues’ perceptions regarding OA, and OA articles’ wider impacts. Discussion: P&T was an important driver in article publishing decisions. However, when discussing OA in P&T, faculty also discussed a range of related issues such as OA journal quality. Furthermore, OA adopters tended to be those who have even stronger beliefs about the impact of OA than about OA’s role in P&T.