E-catalog        

This article reports on the findings of an international online survey of early
career researchers (ECRs) with regard to their authorship and peer review, attitudes,
and practices, which sought to discover how the new wave of
researchers were utilizing these key aspects of the scholarly communications
system. A questionnaire was developed on the back of a 3-year longitudinal,
qualitative study and was distributed through publisher lists, social media networks,
university networks, and specialist ECR membership organizations. Identical
English, Polish, Russian, Chinese, Spanish, and French versions of the
questionnaire were used. Results from 1,600 respondents demonstrated that
82.7% had co-authored a paper, and most had performed a variety of authorship
tasks. Almost half the respondents reported being subject to various
authorship policies, although a quarter said they were not aware of any such
policies. Almost all Chinese ECRs reported being subject to authorship policies,
but only a third of UK ECRs reported the same. Three-quarters of ECRs had
experience in responding to peer review, and half had been peer reviewers. Half
the respondents had a good experience of review and viewed it as a valuable
way to improve their authorship skills. However, there was some criticism of
some shortcoming such as lengthy peer review and superficial or uninformed
comments by reviewers. Double-blind review was the preferred methodology,
and there were few suggestions for how to improve the review process.