Open Access Articles Cited More Frequently

A new study by Gunther Eysenpach, published in PLoS Biology (vol. 4, May 2006), provides evidence of a citation advantage for articles that are openly accessible in a specific journal (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences), compared to articles that are not openly accessible in that same publication. Eysenpach's data come from a long-term bibliometric analysis of 1,492 original research articles; 212 (14.2% of all articles) were OA articles paid by the author, and 1,280 (85.8%) were non-OA articles. Eysenpach's conclusion: "We found strong evidence that, even in a journal that is widely available in research libraries, OA articles are more immediately recognized and cited by peers than non-OA articles published in the same journal. OA is likely to benefit science by accelerating dissemination and uptake of research findings." Read more.