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This study explores the feasibility of establishing a government-sponsored English abstract service for Taiwan's humanities and social sciences (H&SS) publications. The key issues are how to select the H&SS publications to be promoted, and thus given clear English abstracts, and how to enhance the quality of the English abstracts via systematic review. Focus groups and in-depth interviews were used to collect experts' and stakeholders' opinions and suggestions regarding such a program. Most participants viewed the proposed plan positively and offered suggestions regarding the potential problems it might face. To launch the project effectively and have an immediate impact, government agencies may consider two options for the initial stage of implementation: book selection and the writing of English abstracts may be undertaken by scholars in different H&SS fields, working on commission, or it may be undertaken by a reputable academic publisher. Furthermore, government agencies should publish the results of these projects in the form of a scholarly journal. Multiple channels of communication such as websites, newsletters, RSS and Web 2.0 applications may be used to widely promote these English abstracts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Open access (OA) journals emerged in response to library budget cuts and the journal price crisis due to the monopoly of a few major publishers. Today, more and more OA journals have appeared in the landscape of scholarly publishing. However, how do authors who serve an important role in the chain of scholarly communication understand and perceive open access? This study used a multiple case study design to understand twelve biomedical researchers' publishing experiences with OA journals, i.e., how they chose a journal to submit their papers, and how the personal and situational factors influence their selection of OA journals. The major findings include that: 1. the interviewee selected journals based on whether the target journal and the paper to be submitted was a good match, the overall performance of the target journal, and their past experience; 2. interviewees' selection of OA journals could be reinforced or hampered by complicated individual (personal preference or experiences with OA journals) and social factors (subject disciplines or reward mechanism). The findings may shed lights on the promotion of OA journals to scholars in Taiwan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]