The impact factor of an open access journal does not contribute to an article's citations
- PMID: 28649365
- PMCID: PMC5464220
- DOI: 10.12688/f1000research.10892.1
The impact factor of an open access journal does not contribute to an article's citations
Abstract
Background Citations of papers are positively influenced by the journal's impact factor (IF). For non-open access (non-OA) journals, this influence may be due to the fact that high-IF journals are more often purchased by libraries, and are therefore more often available to researchers, than low-IF journals. This positive influence has not, however, been shown specifically for papers published in open access (OA) journals, which are universally accessible, and do not need library purchase. It is therefore important to ascertain if the IF influences citations in OA journals too. Methods 203 randomized controlled trials (102 OA and 101 non-OA) published in January 2011 were included in the study. Five-year citations for papers published in OA journals were compared to those for non-OA journals. Source papers were derived from PubMed. Citations were retrieved from Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar databases. The Thompson-Reuter's IF was used. Results OA journals were found to have significantly more citations overall compared to non-OA journals (median 15.5 vs 12, p=0.039). The IF did not correlate with citations for OA journals (Spearman's rho =0.187, p=0.60). The increase in the citations with increasing IF was minimal for OA journals (beta coefficient = 3.346, 95% CI -0.464, 7.156, p=0.084). In contrast, the IF did show moderate correlation with citations for articles published in non-OA journals (Spearman's rho=0.514, p<0.001). The increase in the number of citations was also significant (beta coefficient = 4.347, 95% CI 2.42, 6.274, p<0.001). Conclusion It is better to publish in an OA journal for more citations. It may not be worth paying high publishing fees for higher IF journals, because there is minimal gain in terms of increased number of citations. On the other hand, if one wishes to publish in a non-OA journal, it is better to choose one with a high IF.
Keywords: Google Scholar; Web of Science; bibliometric analysis; bibliometrics; information science; literature based discovery; open access; publications.
Conflict of interest statement
Competing interests: No competing interests were disclosed.
Figures
Similar articles
-
Impact Factors and Prediction of Popular Topics in a Journal.Ultraschall Med. 2016 Aug;37(4):343-5. doi: 10.1055/s-0042-111209. Epub 2016 Aug 4. Ultraschall Med. 2016. PMID: 27490462 English.
-
Open access publishing: a study of current practices in orthopaedic research.Int Orthop. 2014 Jun;38(6):1297-302. doi: 10.1007/s00264-013-2250-5. Epub 2014 Jan 3. Int Orthop. 2014. PMID: 24384939 Free PMC article. Review.
-
Patterns of citations of open access and non-open access conservation biology journal papers and book chapters.Conserv Biol. 2010 Jun;24(3):872-80. doi: 10.1111/j.1523-1739.2010.01509.x. Epub 2010 Apr 23. Conserv Biol. 2010. PMID: 20455909
-
Comparisons of citations in Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar for articles published in general medical journals.JAMA. 2009 Sep 9;302(10):1092-6. doi: 10.1001/jama.2009.1307. JAMA. 2009. PMID: 19738094
-
[Breast pathology: evaluation of the Portuguese scientific activity based on bibliometric indicators].Acta Med Port. 2006 May-Jun;19(3):225-34. Epub 2006 Sep 7. Acta Med Port. 2006. PMID: 17234084 Review. Portuguese.
Cited by
-
A Bibliometric Analysis of Most Cited Papers on Vesiculobullous Oral Lesions.J Int Soc Prev Community Dent. 2024 Jan 11;14(1):1-9. doi: 10.4103/jispcd.jispcd_84_23. eCollection 2024 Jan-Feb. J Int Soc Prev Community Dent. 2024. PMID: 38559641 Free PMC article. Review.
-
Trends in reader access and article processing charges among urology journals: A systematic review.Indian J Urol. 2023 Oct-Dec;39(4):265-273. doi: 10.4103/iju.iju_159_23. Epub 2023 Sep 29. Indian J Urol. 2023. PMID: 38077199 Free PMC article. Review.
-
Open reproducible scientometric research with Alexandria3k.PLoS One. 2023 Nov 30;18(11):e0294946. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0294946. eCollection 2023. PLoS One. 2023. PMID: 38032908 Free PMC article.
-
Research Performance of Saudi Arabia in Endodontics: A Bibliometric Analysis.J Int Soc Prev Community Dent. 2023 Apr 28;13(2):96-105. doi: 10.4103/jispcd.JISPCD_13_23. eCollection 2023 Mar-Apr. J Int Soc Prev Community Dent. 2023. PMID: 37223449 Free PMC article. Review.
-
The Effect of Open Access on Scholarly and Societal Metrics of Impact in the ASHA Journals.J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2023 Jun 20;66(6):1948-1957. doi: 10.1044/2022_JSLHR-22-00315. Epub 2023 Jan 4. J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2023. PMID: 36599100 Free PMC article.
References
Grants and funding
LinkOut - more resources
Full Text Sources
Other Literature Sources
Miscellaneous