Philosophers' perceptions of pay to publish and open access in Spain: Books versus journals, more than a financial dilemma

Pay to publish and open access have been studied extensively, but less soin disciplines such as philosophy and ethics. This study examines thehabits and perceptions of researchers from these twofields in Spain. Thestudy draws on data from a survey (completed by 201 out of541 researchers), a public debate with 26 researchers, and 14 in-depthinterviews. Our results offer some interesting insights into the criteriaresearchers apply when selecting publishers and journals, notably thevalue they place on the absence of publication fees. However, habits dif-fer for publishing an article or a book, since payment to publish books ismore widespread. The studyfinds contrasting views on the market forpublishing books and journals: some respondents perceived what theyconsider to be the commercialisation of publishing in academic journals,while others provide arguments to support the Spanish book industry.Sceptical views were also voiced on pay to publish as a funding model.Finally, the studyfinds broad agreement among the researchers surveyedthat publicly funded research should be free to read