Biosciences Federation Survey on Open Access – Please do this survey!

Ok, having flagged up two surveys in my previous post I have now done the second one. It seems to be for anyone worldwide but I wanted to bring it to people’s attention because it further clouds the definition of Open Access, whether deliberately or through ignorance I can’t say.

Fairly early on we have the following question:

6. What do you understand by the term ‘Open Access’? (Tick all those that apply)

• Journals that are free to the reader
• Journals that are free to the author
• Journals that charge the author
• Copies of journal articles freely available online (other than in the journal itself)
• Not sure
• Never heard the term
• Other (please give details)

BBB doesn’t seem to even exist as an option!
And then in the following panel;

Full Open Access (OA) journals are generally defined as journals that are free for everyone to read immediately on publication, whether the costs of publication are defrayed through author-side charges, or in some other way

Now, we can (and have) argued for a long time over definitions of OA and the role of BBB etc. But to not mention it at all does not seem helpful. Might I humbly suggest that all those who feel it appropriate do the survey and put something in the ‘Other’ box for Question 6?

The survey is at: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=O8NxxhwFB2DQwDUvW183nw_3d_3d

I am assuming fair use for the purpose of criticism (this is significantly less than 5% of the full text of the survey).