Ways to more openness in science
ZBW research group shows: Visual signals can strengthen open access readiness
Open access to knowledge is essential for research, but open access publications face challenges. Many researchers favour subscription journals with a high impact factor, while there is a lack of incentives for open access. A research group at the ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics has investigated how playful elements can be used to overcome these hurdles and motivate researchers for open access.
The experimental study with over 350 participants shows on the one hand that the journal impact factor remains decisive for the choice of a journal and significantly influences the decisions of researchers. However, the research group also found that gamification, in particular concise badges that are displayed directly on articles, can have a significant influence on publication behaviour. Such playful incentives demonstrably increase the motivation to choose open access journals and thus supplement the established evaluation criteria with an innovative and tangible component.
In addition to badges, the study analysed other motivational approaches such as points and levels, which also offer potential for promoting open access. The results emphasise that playful elements can be an effective building block in a multi-layered incentive system to open up access to scientific knowledge and increase the acceptance of open access publications without replacing traditional evaluation measures such as the journal impact factor.
About the study: Mazarakis, A., Bräuer, P., & Dorsch, I. (2025). Evaluation of gamification as a tool for open access publishing among researchers: insights from a conjoint analysis. Scientometrics, 1-28.. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-024-05226-6
Listening tip (in german):
Gamification im Kontext von Open Access
In episode 47 of the ZBW podcast “The Future is Open Science”, Dr Athanasios Mazarakis explains how game elements influence scientific routines such as publishing. He discusses motivation through badges and the journal impact factor.
*This text was written on 17 April 2025.
This text was translated on 12 May 2025 using DeeplPro.