Research productivity and the journals system: a study of immunology and microbiology authors.

This paper considers the role that the journals system plays in supporting scientific productivity: a critical issue for publishers, librarians and research managers at a time of considerable upheaval in scholarly communication, notably the rise of open access models. The survey findings presented here support the unfashionable view that reader open access is something of a non-issue for the two author communities studied: corresponding authors in immunology and microbiology. Other issues, notably how financial and human resources are organised and deployed appear to be much more serious issues for biomedical researchers. The key policy implication of this work is that Europe could improve its research performance by listening more carefully to its scientists and harnessing those resources more effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]