Open Research Europe is an open access publishing platform for Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe funded researchers from a range of disciplines.
September 2021 marked a significant milestone for Open Research Europe, as the platform published over 100 articles and proved popular with experts from numerous research areas. Following this, the European Commission wanted to give authors the opportunity to provide their feedback on their publishing experiences to date.
The 2021 author survey set out to hear the voices of main authors from 116 published papers, and 69 replied, telling us how they found the overall publishing process and to provide their thoughts and suggestions to ensure that the platform continues to meet the needs of the communities it serves. In this blog post, we explore some of the trends and key findings from the survey.
Key findings from the survey
We asked Open Research Europe authors a number of questions regarding their publishing experiences.
What is your main academic discipline? / Which career stage is most appropriate to you?
We were pleased to see several survey participants, with 33% of authors belonging to the Engineering and Technology discipline and 22% being senior researchers and 15% each being mid-career researchers and early career researchers.
How did you find the publishing experience with Open Research Europe?
Understanding authors’ experience throughout the publishing process gives us valuable insights, enabling us to continue to provide efficient procedures and high-quality editorial services for future authors.
Each author was offered four options to choose from:
- I thought the overall submission process was efficient
- I was satisfied with the editorial service (level of support/ speed/ responsiveness) I would publish in Open Research Europe again
- I would recommend Open Research Europe to my colleagues
- Other (please specify)
86% of participating authors shared a positive response to the statement (2) “I would recommend Open Research Europe to my colleagues“, indicating that many authors are satisfied with Open Research Europe’s policies and processes.
Based on your experience, what effect did suggesting your reviewers have on the peer review process?
At Open Research Europe, we offer a fully open and transparent author-led peer review process. The model is centered around transparency and innovation, allowing peer review to become a constructive and collaborative conversation within the research community. Authors were asked to choose from the following options:
- Suggesting reviewers made it easier to get favorable reviews
- Suggesting reviewers made it easier to get reviewers who had the requisite skills and experience
- Suggesting reviewers made the submission process more complex and slower
Over 70% of authors shared a positive response and agreed that “suggesting reviewers made it easier to get reviewers who had the requisite skills and experience“.
Feedback from our authors
How can we improve the peer review process on Open Research Europe?
“As an early-career researcher, I found it difficult to identify potential reviewers in a field that is new to me. It would be useful if the journal offered additional support from experienced researchers/editors who can provide better reviewer suggestions.” – Anonymous author, 2021
Is there any further feedback you have about Open Research Europe?
“The team behind Open Research Europe is key! Fluent communication, advice, is key and it is done. Good experience. Publishing becomes a joy! OPEN TO OTHER COMMISSION Programmes, like the public health programme, Erasmus+, not just H2020 & Horizon Europe” – Anonymous author 2021
Next Steps
We would like to thank all authors who took the time to complete the 2021 survey. Your valuable feedback will help us better serve our research communities and provide knowledge for all.
We gained a host of insightful feedback from the survey, and we will strive to apply this throughout our work in 2022 and beyond.
