Description of survey respondents*
| Variable | Total n (%) |
| Total responses | 733 (100) |
| Demographics and professional information | |
| Gender | |
| Female | 399 (54.4) |
| Male | 322 (43.9) |
| Other/prefer not to answer | 12 (1.6) |
| Academic job title (n=731) | |
| Assistant professor | 479 (65.5) |
| Associate professor | 120 (16.4) |
| Professor | 49 (6.7) |
| Non-tenure track | 57 (7.8) |
| Other | 26 (3.6) |
| First year to receive NIH funding (n=729) | |
| 2011–2016 | 524 (71.9) |
| 2010–2000 | 169 (23.3) |
| Prior to 2000 | 36 (4.9) |
| Number of academic publications (n=732) | |
| 1–10 | 55 (7.5) |
| 11–20 | 181 (24.7) |
| >20 | 496 (67.8) |
| Previously published in open access format (n=730) | |
| Yes | 489 (67.0) |
| No | 195 (26.7) |
| Not sure | 46 (6.3) |
| Year terminal degree was obtained (n=729) | |
| 2010–2016 | 137 (18.8) |
| 2005–2009 | 307 (42.1) |
| 2000–2004 | 202 (27.7) |
| Prior to 2000 | 83 (11.4) |
| Spam filter on email (n=729) | |
| Yes | 651 (89.3) |
| No | 36 (4.9) |
| Not sure | 42 (5.8) |
| Experience with academic spam emails | |
| Estimated number of academic spam emails/day (n=724) | |
| 1–10 | 398 (54.5) |
| 11–20 | 223 (30.6) |
| >20 | 103 (14.1) |
| Not sure | 6 (0.8) |
| Time spent per day reading/sorting academic spam emails (n=665) | |
| None, delete them all without reading | 132 (19.9) |
| 1–10 min | 419 (63.0) |
| 11–20 min | 89 (13.4) |
| >20 min | 21 (3.2) |
| Not sure | 4 (0.6) |
| History of responding to academic spam email (n=729) | |
| Yes | 226 (31.0) |
| No | 503 (69.0) |
| Concern of missed opportunities (n=731) | |
| Yes | 58 (7.9) |
| No | 575 (78.7) |
| Not sure | 98 (13.4) |
| Methods used to deem emails academic spam† | |
| Consider them all spam | 274 (37.4) |
| Ask a colleague | 123 (16.8) |
| Typos in text/name | 398 (54.5) |
| Don’t recognise journal | 601 (82.0) |
| Address listed is not in the USA | 308 (42.0) |
| Requesting fee to publish | 313 (42.7) |
| Consult the Internet | 239 (32.6) |
*Percentages may not sum to 100 due to rounding; total n differs if a question was left blank.
†Respondents were instructed to select all that apply.
NIH, National Institutes of Health.