A change in the traditional subscription-based system of scholarly publishing towards open access has been discussed since around year 2000. Open access to research results means that the publications should be available on the internet, free of charge, for anyone who wants to read. The area of scholarly publishing is changing rapidly and in recent years we have seen, for example, the cancellation of the Elsevier agreement, Plan S entering into effect and new read-and-publish-agreements being signed.  

The aim of this study was to investigate researchers’ attitudes to open access-publishing, and their way of relating to the ongoing transition of the scholarly publishing system into open access. Semi-structured interviews were performed with six researchers in medicine-related research areas at a Swedish university in 2019, to get their perspective on open access publishing.  

All respondents agreed with the democratic idea behind open access. However, when it came to dealing with the change of the system, the respondents’ strategies ranged from adaptation to continuing as usual. Some of the respondents saw the Article Processing Charges and the lack of merits related to open access publishing as problematic.

Since 2019 some things have changed in open access publishing, for example a lot more read-and-publish agreements have been signed. This work examines the respondents’ attitudes towards open access and the process of transition, using both a contemporary and an up-to-date perspective.