Access to Top-Cited Emergency Care Articles (Published Between 2012 and 2016) Without Subscription

Area of Science:

• Medical Research
• Scholarly Publishing
• Emergency Medicine

Background:

• Open access accelerates research progress, productivity, and knowledge translation.
• Efficient content dissemination is crucial for scientific advancement.
• This study examines access to highly cited emergency medicine articles.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the accessibility of the 500 most-cited emergency medicine articles.
• To analyze access by publisher model (open access vs. subscription).
• To investigate alternate access routes and associated costs.

Main Methods:

• Identified 500 top-cited emergency medicine articles (2012-2016) using Scopus.
• Determined access status via publisher and searched for self-archived copies.
• Collected article processing/access charges and calculated relative costs using PPP index.

Main Results:

• 33% of articles were open access; 67% required subscription or other access.
• 61% of non-open access articles were available through alternate online routes.
• Article processing charges averaged $2,518.62, disproportionately impacting authors from middle-income countries.

Conclusions:

• Subscription-only access remains a barrier for a significant portion of top emergency medicine literature.
• Publication costs present a substantial hurdle for researchers in upper-middle-income nations.
• Authors should consider the citation benefits of open access for broader knowledge dissemination.