Authors attain comparable or slightly higher rates of citation publishing in an open access journal (CytoJournal) compared to traditional cytopathology journals - A five year (2007-2011) experience

Abstract

Background:The era of Open Access (OA) publication, a platform which serves to better disseminate scientific knowledge, is upon us, as more OA journals are in existence than ever before. The idea that peer-reviewed OA publication leads to higher rates of citation has been put forth and shown to be true in several publications. This is a significant benefit to authors and is in addition to another relatively less obvious but highly critical component of the OA charter, i.e. retention of the copyright by the authors in the public domain. In this study, we analyzed the citation rates of OA and traditional non-OA publications specifically for authors in the field of cytopathology.Design:We compared the citation patterns for authors who had published in both OA and traditional non-OA peer-reviewed, scientific, cytopathology journals. Citations in an OA publication (CytoJournal) were analyzed comparatively with traditional non-OA cytopathology journals (Acta Cytologica, Cancer Cytopathology, Cytopathology, and Diagnostic Cytopathology) using the data from web of science citation analysis site (based on which the impact factors (IF) are calculated). After comparing citations per publication, as well as a time adjusted citation quotient (which takes into account the time since publication), we also analyzed the statistics after excluding the data for meeting abstracts.Results:Total 28 authors published 314 publications as articles and meeting abstracts (25 authors after excluding the abstracts). The rate of citation and time adjusted citation quotient were higher for OA in the group where abstracts were included (P < 0.05 for both). The rates were also slightly higher for OA than non-OA when the meeting abstracts were excluded, but the difference was statistically insignificant (P = 0.57 and P = 0.45).ConclusionWe observed that for the same author, the publications in the OA journal attained a higher rate of citation than the publications in the traditional non-OA journals in the field of cytopathology over a 5 year period (2007-2011). However, this increase was statistically insignificant if the meeting abstracts were excluded from the analysis. Overall, the rates of citation for OA and non-OA were slightly higher to comparable.

Should We be More “Open” About Publishing Research?

“…They observed that for the same author, the publications in the OA journal attained a higher rate of citation than the publications in the traditional non-OA journals over a 5-year period (2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011). Overall, the rates of citation for OA and non-OA were slightly higher to comparable [16]. A growing number of studies have confirmed, with varying degrees of methodological rigor, that an open-access article is more likely to be used and cited than one behind subscription barriers [15][16][17].…”

“…The idea that peer-reviewed OA publication leads to higher rates of citation has been put forth and shown to be true in several publications [15,16]. This is a significant benefit to authors and is in addition to another relatively less obvious but highly critical component of the OA charter, i.e., retention of the copyright by the authors in the public domain [15].…”

“…In a recent study, Frisch et al [16] analyzed the citation rates of OA and traditional non-OA publications. They compared the citation patterns for authors who had published in both OA and traditional non-OA peer-reviewed scientific journals.…”

Open Access: what's in it for me as an early career researcher?

“…In the field of civil engineering, it was discovered that open access articles received 29% more citations [Koler-Povh, Juznic and Turk, 2014]. Frisch et al [2014] studied the area of cytopathology and discovered that the open access publications of the same author gained a higher citation than the closed access articles. Economics, research conducted on 639 articles published in 2005 from 13 economics journals, discovered that open access journals gain significantly higher citations [Wohlrade and Birkmeier, 2014].…”

Visibilidad e impacto de la literatura gris científica en repositorios institucionales de acceso abierto. Estudio de caso bibliométrico del repositorio Gredos de la Universidad de Salamanca

“…Existen estudios que demuestran el aumento de citación de los trabajos de investigación publicados y puestos en acceso abierto frente a aquellos trabajos publicados y que no están en acceso abierto (Atchison & Bull, 2015;Bernius & Hanauske, 2009;W. Cheng & Ren, 2008;Donovan & Watson, 2011;Donovan, Watson, & Osborne, 2014;Evans & Reimer, 2009;Eysenbach, 2006;Frisch, Nathan, Ahmed, Shidham, & Ahmed, 2014;Gargouri et al, 2010;Gaulé & Maystre, 2011;Hajjem, Harnad, & Gingras, 2005;Harnad & Brody, 2004;Koler-Povh, Juznic, & Turk, 2014;Kullman, 2014;Kurtz et al, 2005;Laakso & Björk, 2013;Lawrence, 2001;Mahesh, 2012;McCabe & Snyder, 2014;Michael Norris, Oppenheim, & Rowland, 2008;Piwowar & Vision, 2013;Riera & Aibar, 2013;Xia, Myers, & Wilhoite, 2011;Xia & Nakanishi, 2012;Zhang, 2006). La novedad de esta investigación radica en el estudio de la literatura gris científica, un campo mucho más difícil de explorar a la hora de obtener datos de uso y citación que aquel de los trabajos publicados por los canales tradicionales de edición (Ferreras-Fernández, .…”