Students Among the Most Avid Readers of Open Access Journal Articles

Open access publishing is on the increase, but who are the readers of these scientific journals that are openly available?

A new article written by Finnish and Swedish researchers inquired into the readership of Finnish open access journals. Among 668 survey participants, the two largest groups were students (40%) and researchers (36%).

Students and researchers were followed by private citizens (8%), other experts (7%), and teachers (5%). Other identified user categories included journalists, civil servants, entrepreneurs and politicians. While new publications attract a considerable share of the views, there is still a relatively large interest, especially among students, in older materials.

The study is based on an online survey, conducted on 48 journals on the platform Journal.fi during Spring 2020, in which visitors were asked to indicate their background and allow their location and download behaviour be tracked.

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Who Are the Users of National Open Access Journals? The Case of the Finnish Journal.fi Platform

The paper, published in the journal Learned Publishing, studied the users of open access articles on the Finnish platform Journal.fi. This platform, similar to Sciendo where Nordicom’s journals Nordicom Review and Nordic Journal of Media Studies are hosted, includes around hundred open access journals from different fields, published mainly in Finnish and English. The authors conclude that open access to publications in national languages is vital for the local relevance and outreach of research.
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Who Are the Users of National Open Access Journals? The Case of the Finnish Journal.fi Platform

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