Attitudes towards open peer review, open data and use of preprints influence scientists’ engagement with those practices. Yet there is a lack of validated questionnaires that measure these attitudes. The goal of our study was to construct and validate such a questionnaire and use it to assess attitudes of Croatian scientists. We first developed a 21-item questionnaire called Attitudes towards Open data sharing, preprinting, and peer-review (ATOPP), which had a reliable four-factor structure, and measured attitudes towards open data, preprint servers, open peer-review and open peer-review in small scientific communities. We then used the ATOPP to explore attitudes of Croatian scientists (n = 541) towards these topics, and to assess the association of their attitudes with their open science practices and demographic information. Overall, Croatian scientists’ attitudes towards these topics were generally neutral, with a median (Md) score of 3.3 out of max 5 on the scale score. We also found no gender (P = 0.995) or field differences (P = 0.523) in their attitudes. However, attitudes of scientist who previously engaged in open peer-review or preprinting were higher than of scientists that did not (Md 3.5 vs. 3.3, P<0.001, and Md 3.6 vs 3.3, P<0.001, respectively). Further research is needed to determine optimal ways of increasing scientists’ attitudes and their open science practices.

Attitudes towards open peer review, open data and use of preprints influence scientists’ engagement with those practices. Yet there is a relatively small number of validated questionnaires that measure these attitudes. The goal of our study was to construct and validate such a questionnaire. Using a sample of Croatian scientists (N=541), from a wide range of disciplines, we developed a questionnaire titled Attitudes towards Open data sharing, preprinting, and peer-review (ATOPP). The questionnaire has 21 item with a four-factor structure (attitudes towards: open data, preprint servers, open peer-review and open peer-review in small scientific communities). Based on the questionnaire, the attitudes of Croatian scientists towards these topics were generally neutral, with a median of 3.3 out of 5 of the total attitude score. Croatian scientist attitudes were lowest for open peer-review in small scientific communities (Md 2.0) and highest for open data (Md 3.9).

Background: the opinion on open science practices at the University of Rijeka and the importance of information literacy skills of scientists have been investigated before, but to our knowledge, not in Croatia. Objective: we aimed to analyse the opinion on open access and open science practices before open science policies were implemented. Methods: Scientists at the University of Rijeka (N=1256) were invited to fill out an anonymous online questionnaire (73 questions in total) on open science (Google forms) in 2020. Results: Altogether 192 participants (response rate=15%) were involved in this study, out of which 110 (57%) were female with a mean age of 42±11 years. Participants involved had a career in biomedical (37%), social (31%) and technical sciences (14%); 20% of them were novice researchers or post-docs and 80% of them were assistant professors or had a higher academic rank. Participants agree that journals should be open access (88%), would choose an open access journal if they had to choose between two journals with similar impact factors (77%). They consider the impact factor more important than open access (45%), think that publishing fees are too high (83%), and 28% of them still conceive the open access journals of less quality. Most of the participants (74%) have published an article in an open-access journal, 33% without a publishing fee. Respondents archive their articles in the Croatian bibliography (CROSBI) (70%), on social networks (43%) and on their web (27%). If the article is not available to read online, they use different strategies for obtaining the desired article: writing to the authors (51%), using Sci-Hub (56%), asking a colleague for help (40%) and asking a librarian for help (35%). Conclusions: Most of the scientists in our study are in favour of open access but consider publication fees too high. The archiving practices are not satisfactory as authors mostly don't use digital repositories and need more information literacy programmes, guidance made in cooperation with librarians. The results indicate that creating and implementing the information literacy programs for scientists with the open-access topics is needed.

No abstract

Visokoškolske knjižnice u Republici Hrvatskoj u posljednjih petnaestak godina započele su s provođenjem programa informacijskog opismenjavanja. Najčešći oblici informacijskog opismenjavanja su radionice na dobrovoljnoj osnovi koje knjižničari provode ili samostalno ili kroz neformalnu suradnju knjižničara i nastavnog osoblja na različitim kolegijima. Zbog nesustavne i sporadične edukacije može se pretpostaviti da studenti na svim godinama studija posjeduju različite razine temeljnih informacijskih kompetencija, ali i potrebnih kontekstualnih informacijskih vještina, specifičnih za pojedino područje znanosti. S obzirom na mali broj istraživanja i nedostatan broj dokaza, može se pretpostaviti da ne postoji dovoljna svijest o promicanju i važnosti uključivanja formalnih programa informacijskog opismenjavanja, što može dovesti do zaključka da ili programa nema dovoljno, ili da se oni, ako i postoje, ne temelje na stvarnim potrebama studenata, nastavnika i drugih sudionika obrazovnog procesa.Cilj je rada kvalitativnom metodom analize sadržaja relevantne literature iz područja informacijske pismenosti ukazati na neke od najvažnijih modela i standarda informacijskog opismenjavanja u području prava i medicine u svijetu. Svrha je istraživanja proširiti teorijske spoznaje i unaprijediti poučavanje informacijske pismenosti u ova dva predmetna područja u Republici Hrvatskoj. Na praktičnoj razini istraženi modeli i standardi mogu poslužiti kao okviri za izradu formalnih programa informacijskog opismenjavanja u praksi navedenih knjižnica, kao i za unaprjeđivanje prakse u knjižnicama sa sličnim iskustvom u Republici Hrvatskoj.---------------------------------Information literacy programmes (theoretical framework in the field of law and medicine)