scholarly journals Do articles in open access journals have more frequent altmetric activity than articles in subscription-based journals? An investigation of the research output of Finnish universities

2019 ◽  
Vol 122 (1) ◽  
pp. 645-659 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim Holmberg ◽  
Juha Hedman ◽  
Timothy D. Bowman ◽  
Fereshteh Didegah ◽  
Mikael Laakso
Keyword(s):  
Open Access ◽  
Economic Geography ◽  
Comparative Research ◽  
Research Output ◽  
Research Focus ◽  
Online Platforms ◽  
Open Access Journals ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Methodological Approaches ◽  
Over Time

AbstractScientific articles available in Open Access (OA) have been found to attract more citations and online attention to the extent that it has become common to speak about OA Altmetrics Advantage. This research investigates how the OA Altmetrics Advantage holds for a specific case of research articles, namely the research outputs from universities in Finland. Furthermore, this research examines disciplinary and platform specific differences in that (dis)advantage. The new methodological approaches developed in this research focus on relative visibility, i.e. how often articles in OA journals receive at least one mention on the investigated online platforms, and relative receptivity, i.e. how frequently articles in OA journals gain mentions in comparison to articles in subscription-based journals. The results show significant disciplinary and platform specific differences in the OA advantage, with articles in OA journals within for instance veterinary sciences, social and economic geography and psychology receiving more citations and attention on social media platforms, while the opposite was found for articles in OA journals within medicine and health sciences. The results strongly support field- and platform-specific considerations when assessing the influence of journal OA status on altmetrics. The new methodological approaches used in this research will serve future comparative research into OA advantage of scientific articles over time and between countries.

scholarly journals Open Access: An analysis of European publisher copyright and licensing policies today

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ignasi Labastida i Juan
Keyword(s):  
Open Access ◽  
Digital Age ◽  
Scholarly Journal ◽  
First Principle ◽  
Open Access Journals ◽  
European Publisher ◽  
Academic Authors ◽  
Share Information ◽  
Over Time

The digital age has brought authors of publications many more opportunities to gain further impact and visibility by sharing their work online through websites, pre-print servers, repositories, publishing platforms or other digital venues as well as journals. Publisher copyright policies have not always been enablers of these new practices but change is underway. Europe has also seen a surge in international, national and local Open Access (OA) policies in recent years, a significant one being Plan S with its requirements related to rights retention and open licensing. How far are publishers in supporting authors in this change? In early 2020 SPARC Europe commissioned a report to gain a better understanding of current copyright and licensing practices amongst scholarly journal publishers based in Europe and how these are presented to academic authors. The key purpose of the study was to provide evidence on how publisher policies support OA and to see whether the complexity of the copyright and self-archiving landscape amongst publishers has simplified over time. We also explored how Plan S-ready publishers were with regards to the first principle of their policy related to authors or their institutions being required to retain copyright to their publications, calling for all publications to be published under an open license, preferably CC BY, immediately and under no embargo. Research was undertaken on various levels: the 2020 study reviewed the copyright, self-archiving and open licensing policies from 10 large legacy publisher websites and then asked these publishers to verify these findings. We also analysed the policies of pure open access journals in Europe from the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). To limit the scope, Europe was taken as the focus of this research. This paper will firstly demonstrate how diversely publishers present and share information on their copyright, licensing and self-archiving policies and how challenging this can be for authors and the institutions that support them. We will also share findings on the specifics of publisher policies be they hybrid or pure OA. For example, examining how far large publishers currently allow authors to retain publishing rights for articles, to what extent they allow zero embargoes when self-archiving or how far pure OA journals use the CC BY license. This paper ends by making a number of recommendations to publishers, research funders, institutions and authors to ultimately support authors to more easily navigate this policy landscape and to be able to publish immediate OA.

scholarly journals Mapping cognitive translation and interpreting studies: A bibliometric approach

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Olalla-Soler ◽  
Javier Franco Aixelá ◽  
Sara Rovira-Esteva
Keyword(s):  
Open Access ◽  
Research Output ◽  
Data Source ◽  
Changes Over Time ◽  
Bibliometric Approach ◽  
Point Of Departure ◽  
Bibliometric Studies ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Productive Authors

This article identifies the specific characteristics of Cognitive Translation and Interpreting Studies (CTIS) as a branch of Translation and Interpreting Studies (TIS), adopting a bibliometric approach. The main data source for this study was the Bibliography of Interpreting and Translation (BITRA), which – as at September 2019 – included more than 77,000 TIS records, covering the diversity of languages and document types used in TIS research. BTRA is the only TIS database to feature citing information. CTIS-related records were analysed, and those published between 1976 and 2015 were compared with the whole corpus of TIS research output for the same period – again, as registered in BITRA. Specifically, we analysed: (a) the general features and evolution of CTIS publications over time (by thematic co-occurrence, by title content words, by format and by language); (b) authorship, focusing on co-authorship and on the most productive authors; (c) the citation patterns of CTIS documents, including a brief analysis of its most cited authors and publications; and (d) CTIS accessibility through a study of the ratio of documents published in open access. These aspects were analysed both synchronically and diachronically so as to describe CTIS as a whole and to identify any changes over time. Our results yield a first overview of CTIS from a bibliometric perspective and provide a methodological point of departure for future bibliometric studies in this area.

scholarly journals Prospects of open access to Indian agricultural research: A case study of ICAR

First Monday ◽  
2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aneeja Guttikonda ◽  
Sridhar Gutam
Keyword(s):  
Open Access ◽  
Impact Factor ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Agricultural Research ◽  
Research Output ◽  
Peer Review Process ◽  
Time Lag ◽  
Professional Societies ◽  
Research Journal ◽  
Open Access Journals

Historically, agricultural research and education in India have been in the public domain. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) was established as an apex organization for effective research coordination among institutions and promotion of agricultural research in the country. Funds for agricultural research institutes were channeled through the ICAR from the central government. For the dissemination of research output, the research journals publishing in India have been, for long, primarily a public funded activity and done mostly by Government agencies. In case of agricultural research, the journals are being published by ICAR and by respective professional societies. Many of these societies are receiving financial assistance partly from ICAR. Each discipline of agriculture is represented by some sort of professional society and for some disciplines, and each society publishes a peer–reviewed research journal. Though many of these journals are distributed for international indexing, full–text database services are very poor. Many of them are not even in the ISI Master Journal list for impact factor or science citation index analysis. The main objective of each author is to have more impact, visibility and readership for their work. These journals publish quality articles after stringent peer review process, but the time lag from submission to publication of an article or production of issue is long. There are instances where the articles sent for review were not returned back due to various reasons. The infrastructure for publishing online is also not available for these journals. Recently, a portal (http://www.indianjournals.com) had started providing online access to some of the journals which are being published by professional societies. Under the National Agriculture Innovation Project (NAIP), ICAR is making available some subscription–based foreign international online journals along with other open access journals. Now the time has come to think about the wider availability of scientific journals without any restrictions. The availability of open source software for the transformation of traditional journals into open access journals and the establishment of open archive online repositories for archiving research will eventually make agricultural research reach to much larger audiences. This will increase the visibility of research output and eventually lead to an enhanced impact factor for many Indian agricultural research journals.

scholarly journals 26 Do we need a Plan B for Plan S?

2019 ◽  
Vol 97 (Supplement_3) ◽  
pp. 23-24
Author(s):  
Teresa A Davis
Keyword(s):  
Open Access ◽  
Financial Stability ◽  
Technology Policy ◽  
Research Output ◽  
Research Society ◽  
Open Access Publishing ◽  
Scientific Publications ◽  
White House ◽  
Open Access Journals ◽  
Article Processing Charges

Abstract A group of European funding agencies launched an initiative called “Plan S” in September 2018 that would require scientific publications resulting from funded research to be published only in Plan S-compliant open access journals by 2020. A delegation from the European Commission visited the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and other federal agencies in December 2018 to gain support for Plan S. Plan S would force authors to publish solely in open access journals and bar researchers from publishing in hybrid journals, such as the Journal of Animal Science, that allow authors to choose between Gold and Green Open Access publishing. Gold Open Access allows immediate open access with articles made freely available at time of publication and requires payment of article processing charges that are usually higher than page charges of subscription-based journals. Green Open Access publishing is subscription-based and defers open access for the publisher embargo period (usually 12 months). Because 85% of journals are hybrid or subscription based, Plan S would limit researcher’s academic freedom to decide where to publish and prevent authors from publishing in most research society journals that are hybrid or subscription-based. Research society-based journals provide rigorous peer review and comprehensive editorial processes and thus, have earned the trust of researchers, professionals, and the public. Funneling research output to non-research society based open access journals may distort the dissemination of scientific research and reduce the quality of scientific communication. Nonprofit research societies use revenues from their publishing operations to finance educational, journalistic, outreach, and other activities and thus, Plan S threatens the financial stability of these research societies. Authors should be allowed to choose the best venue to publish their work. Plan S must be rejected.

An analysis of research output in open access journals in BRICS countries: a bibliometric study

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sana Zia
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Open Access ◽  
English Language ◽  
Research Output ◽  
Research Work ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Brics Countries ◽  
Open Access Journals ◽  
The Usa

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the current status of research output published in open access (OA) journals from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) countries from 2010 to 2019 and compare their performances in terms of OA research output. Design/methodology/approach Papers contributed by the researchers of BRICS countries were searched using an advanced search option in the Web of Science core collection database. The retrieved results were restricted to the “journal articles” published in the “English language” during the time period of 2010 to 2019. After that, the selected papers were again refined by using the “open access” section to identify the research output of BRICS countries published in OA journals. Findings Total 2,219,943 papers were published from BRICS countries, out of which 402,199 articles were published in OA journals and South Africa has published the highest number of research output in OA journals (31%). Although, there has been a constant increasing growth of research output published in OA journals in BRICS countries from 13,300 papers in 2010 to 82,310 articles in 2019. Engineering and Technology have published the maximum number of papers in OA journals. Researchers of BRICS countries mostly contributed their OA research output in journals published from the USA and Scientific Reports (UK) is identified as one of the leading OA journals. Additionally, among all the BRICS countries, China is found as the promising leader in terms of OA journals publications, the maximum share i.e. 71.25 per cent of total 402,199 OA journal publications have been produced by the highest number 137 (23.41%) of institutions of China and Chinese Academy of Sciences (China) is leading institution with 39,036 papers published in OA journals. Research limitations/implications This study is limited to BRICS countries, but it offers theoretical implications for extending its scope to different countries. This study may be used for raising awareness of OA among researchers of BRICS countries and encouraging them to contribute their research work in OA journals. The findings of this study are useful and meaningful in understanding the comparative status of research across countries, disciplines, journals and institutions. Originality/value This is the first study in BRICS countries focusing on the research output published in OA journals.

A review of the open-access scenario in Afghanistan

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 660-668
Author(s):  
Vrushali Sainath Dandawate ◽  
Dhanamjaya M.
Keyword(s):  
Open Access ◽  
Digital Libraries ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Research Output ◽  
Web Pages ◽  
Asian Countries ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Documentary Analysis ◽  
Open Access Journals ◽  
The Pacific

Purpose Open access movement is getting increased in Asia and the Pacific and has been started in the form of subject gateways, informal collections of articles on web pages and directories. Many Asian countries adopted the transition to Open Access journals and full-text repositories and digital libraries. Open access also helps to underprivilege countries to spread their research output. But third-world Islamic countries are far away from open access and its implementations. The purpose of this paper is to focus on open-access e-resource development in Afghanistan. Design/methodology/approach The data were complemented by documentary analysis, and information retrieved from open-access databases like DOAR, DOAJ and OER Sites. Findings The paper provides information about open-access development in Afghanistan and also focuses on the challenges for spreading OA awareness in Afghanistan. It suggests that how local people and universities can help to spread open-access movement. Social implications This paper gives an idea about the educational system and other resources available in Afghanistan. Originality/value This paper fulfills an identified need to study open-access development and status in Afghanistan.

scholarly journals The early bird uses bioRxiv: The impact of career stage on the usage of preprints in ecology and evolution

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesse Wolf ◽  
Layla MacKay ◽  
Sarah Haworth ◽  
Marie-Laurence Cossette ◽  
Morgan Dedato ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Open Access ◽  
Research Output ◽  
Peer Review Process ◽  
The United States ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Marginal Effect ◽  
Career Stage ◽  
Early Career Researchers ◽  
Open Access Journals ◽  
The Impact

The usage of preprint servers in ecology and evolution is increasing, as it allows for research to be rapidly disseminated and available through open access at no cost. This is relevant for Early Career Researchers (ECRs), who must demonstrate research ability for funding opportunities, scholarships, grants, or faculty positions in short temporal windows in order to advance their careers. Concurrently, limited experience with the peer review process can make it challenging for those who are in the early stages of their research career to build publication records. Therefore, ECRs face different challenges relative to researchers with permanent positions and established research programs and have different requirements in terms of research output and timelines. These challenges might also vary according to institution size and country, which are associated with the availability of funding for open access journals. Herein, we hypothesize that career stage and institution size impact relative usage of preprint servers among researchers in ecology and evolution. Using data collected from 500 articles (100 from each of two open access journals, two closed access journals, and a preprint server), we demonstrate that ECRs generate more preprints relative to non-ECRs, for both first and last authors. We speculate that this pattern is reflective of the advantages of quick and open access research that is disproportionately beneficial to ECRs. There is also a marginal effect of first author institution size on preprint usage, whereby the number of preprints tends to increase with institution size for ECRs, although the interaction between ECR status and institution size was not significant. The United States and United Kingdom contributed the greatest number of preprints by early career researchers, whereas non-western countries contributed relatively fewer preprints. This research provides empirical evidence regarding motivations of preprint usage and barriers surrounding large-scale adoption of preprinting in ecology and evolution.

scholarly journals The state of population health research performance in the Middle East and North Africa: a meta-research study

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Karima Chaabna ◽  
Sohaila Cheema ◽  
Amit Abraham ◽  
Patrick Maisonneuve ◽  
Albert B. Lowenfels ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Open Access ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Impact Factor ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Research Performance ◽  
Western Country ◽  
Western Countries ◽  
Open Access Journals ◽  
Registration Number ◽  
Over Time

Abstract Background Population health (PH) research capacity and performance are essential pillars of evidence-based practice to help address health inequalities. Best evidence is provided by systematic reviews (SRs). None of the published bibliometric analysis specifically assess the production of SRs on PH in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The aim of our study is to investigate publication patterns and time trends of SRs reporting PH in the MENA region to evaluate the state of PH research performance in the region. Method The study protocol was developed a priori (protocol registration number: CRD42017076736). PubMed was searched. Two independent reviewers screened 5747 identified articles. We investigated author affiliation and collaboration, yearly citations of the SRs and journal information. Joinpoint regression was used to explore these characteristics overtime. Results Our meta-research included 387 SRs published between 2008 and 2016 which reported data on PH in 20 MENA countries. Publication of SRs increased over time in journals with impact factor < 4 and in the categories of yearly number of citations < 50 (p values ≤ 0.0024). Authors belonging to the region published increasingly (p value = 0.0001) over time. Thirty percent of the SRs were from authors solely from the region, while an additional 30% were from the region collaborating with Western country authors. Of these collaborative reviews, 79% were led by authors from the region. However, collaboration in the region (with the exclusion of collaboration with Western country authors) was rare (0.8%). These authors from the region published more in open-access journals while authors from Western countries collaborating or not with authors from the region published more in hybrid or non-open-access journals (p value < 0.0001). Collaboration between authors from MENA and Western countries led to published SRs in journals with impact factor ≥ 10. Systematic reviews with global coverage were published more by authors from Western countries, while SRs with country-level coverage were published by authors from the region (p value < 0.0001). Conclusion The incremental trend of PH SR publications on MENA likely reflects the ongoing improvement in research performance in the region. Authors from the region appear to be taking a lead role in conducting and disseminating MENA PH research. Open-access journals are a major contributor in facilitating MENA research dissemination. Systematic review registration PROSPERO registration number CRD42017076736

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