Survey instrument and dataset for article entitled "Faculty Knowledge & Attitudes Regarding Predatory Open Access Journals: A Needs Assessment Study"

Survey instrument and dataset for published article (see article's abstract below)

Objective: Predatory open access (OA) journals’ purpose is to make a profit, not disseminate quality, peer-reviewed research. Publishing in such journals can negatively impact faculty reputations and promotion/tenure. Yet many publish in these journals, either knowingly or unknowingly. A medical school library and university library collaborated to investigate faculty knowledge and attitudes regarding thesepredatory open access journals.

Methods: A 20-item questionnaire containing both quantitative and qualitative items was developed and piloted. All university and medical school faculty were invited to participate. The survey included knowledge questions, which assessed participants’ ability to identify predatory OAopen access journals, and attitudinal questions about such journals. Chi-square testing was used to compare differences between university and medical school faculty.

Results: A total of 183 faculty completed the survey; 62.7% were university and 37.4% medical school faculty. Twenty three percent had not previously heard of the term “predatory journal” and when asked to review a journal in their field, only 59.9% correctly identified the journal as predatory. Yet, 86.9% reported feeling very confident or confident in their ability to assess journal quality. Chi-square testing revealed statistically significant differences in university versus medical school faculty ability to correctly identify the predatory OA journal (p = 0.0006) as well as their self confidence in assessing journal quality (p < 0.05).

Conclusions: The results of this study will be used to develop an educational outreach campaign targeting faculty in all disciplines, including offering in-person workshops and creating dedicated webpages on the libraries’ website on predatory OA journals.