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Related Experiment Videos

Open access publishing, article downloads, and citations: randomised controlled trial.

Philip M Davis¹, Bruce V Lewenstein, Daniel H Simon

¹Department of Communication, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA. pmd8@cornell.edu

BMJ (Clinical Research Ed.)

|August 2, 2008

Summary

Open access publishing increases article downloads and readership significantly. However, this study found no evidence that open access leads to more citations in the first year compared to traditional subscription access.

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Area of Science:

Biomedical research
Scholarly communication
Publishing industry

Background:

The proliferation of open access (OA) publishing models aims to increase the accessibility of scientific literature.
Understanding the impact of OA on article dissemination and academic influence is crucial for researchers and publishers.

Purpose of the Study:

To quantify the effect of free access to scientific articles on their download rates and subsequent citation counts.
To compare the readership and citation impact of articles made available through open access versus traditional subscription models.

Main Methods:

A randomized controlled trial was conducted involving 1619 research articles and reviews across 11 journals from the American Physiological Society.
Articles were randomly assigned to either open access or subscription access upon online publication.
Article readership was measured by full-text downloads, PDF downloads, abstract downloads, and unique visitor IP addresses. Citations were tracked for one year post-publication.

Main Results:

Open access articles demonstrated substantially higher readership, with an 89% increase in full-text downloads and a 42% increase in PDF downloads within the first six months.
Unique visitor numbers were 23% higher for open access articles, while abstract downloads decreased by 24%.
Crucially, open access articles were not cited more frequently than subscription access articles within the first year, with logistic and negative binomial regression analyses confirming no citation advantage.

Conclusions:

Open access publishing demonstrably enhances article reach and reader engagement compared to subscription access.
The study found no evidence of a citation advantage for open access articles in the initial year post-publication.
Widely reported citation advantages for open access may stem from confounding factors rather than the access model itself.