Norris, M; Oppenheim, C; Rowland, F The citation advantage of open-access articles JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, 59 (12): 1963-1972 OCT 2008

[Eugene Garfield]

E-mail Address: M.Norris2 at lboro.ac.uk; C.Oppenheim at lboro.ac.uk; 
J.F.Rowland at lboro.ac.uk 

Author(s): Norris, M (Norris, Michael); Oppenheim, C (Oppenheim, Charles); 
Rowland, F (Rowland, Fytton) 

Title: The citation advantage of open-access articles 

Source: JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND 
TECHNOLOGY, 59 (12): 1963-1972 OCT 2008 

Language: English 

Document Type: Article 

Keywords Plus: WEB-OF-SCIENCE; GOOGLE-SCHOLAR; IMPACT; SEARCH; SCOPUS 

Abstract: Four subjects-ecology, applied mathematics, sociology, and 
economics-were selected to assess whether there is a citation advantage 
between journal articles that have an open-access (OA) version on the 
internet compared to those articles that are exclusively toll access (TA). 
Citations were counted using the Web of Science, and the OA status of 
articles was determined by searching OAIster, OpenDOAR, Google, and Google 
Scholar. Of a sample of 4,633 articles examined, 2,280 (49%) were OA and 
had a mean citation count of 9.04 whereas the mean for TA articles was 
5.76. There appears to be a clear citation advantage for those articles 
that are OA as opposed to those that are TA. This advantage, however, 
varies between disciplines, with sociology having the highest citation 
advantage, but the lowest number of OA articles, from the sample taken, 
and ecology having the highest individual citation count for OA articles, 
but the smallest citation advantage. Tests of correlation or association 
between OA status and a number of variables were generally found to weak 
or inconsistent. The cause of this citation advantage has not been 
determined. 

Addresses: [Norris, Michael; Oppenheim, Charles; Rowland, Fytton] Univ 
Loughborough, Dept Informat Sci, Loughborough LE11 3TU, Leics, England 

Reprint Address: Norris, M, Univ Loughborough, Dept Informat Sci, 
Loughborough LE11 3TU, Leics, England. 

E-mail Address: M.Norris2 at lboro.ac.uk; C.Oppenheim at lboro.ac.uk; 
J.F.Rowland at lboro.ac.uk 

Cited Reference Count: 37 

Times Cited: 0 

Publisher: JOHN WILEY & SONS INC 

Publisher Address: 111 RIVER ST, HOBOKEN, NJ 07030 USA 

ISSN: 1532-2882 

DOI: 10.1002/asi.20898 

29-char Source Abbrev.: J AM SOC INF SCI TECHNOL 

ISO Source Abbrev.: J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci. Technol. 

Source Item Page Count: 10 

Subject Category: Computer Science, Information Systems; Information 
Science & Library Science 

ISI Document Delivery No.: 351WB 

J CITATION REPORTS : 2007 

REPEC PROJECT : 2007 

ANTELMAN K
Do open-access articles have a greater research impact? 
COLLEGE & RESEARCH LIBRARIES 65 : 372 2004 

CARR L
ACCESS SELF ARCH VIA : 2006 

CRAIG I
DO OPEN ACCESS ARTIC : 2007 

DAVIS P
DOES ARXIV LEAD HIGH : 2006 

EYSENBACH G
Citation advantage of open access articles 
PLOS BIOLOGY 4 : 692 ARTN e157 2006 

GARFIELD E
AGONY ECSTASY HIST M : 2005 

GARFIELD E
CITATION INDEXING IT : 1979 

HAJJEM C
10 YEAR CROSS DISCIP 2005 

HARNAD S
CITATION ADV OA SELF : 2007 

HARNAD S
D LIB MAGAZINE 10 : 2004 

HARNAD S
OPEN ACCESS CITATION : 2007 

HARNAD S
OPEN ACCESS KEY STRA : 73 2006 

HARNAD S
SERIALS REV 30 : 310 2004 

HICKS D
HDB QUANTITATIVE SCI : 473 2004 

HINTON P
STAT EXPLAINED : 2004 

HIRSCH J
P NATL ACAD SCI USA 46 : 16569 2005 

JACSO P
As we may search - Comparison of major features of the Web of Science, 
Scopus, and Google Scholar citation-based and citation-enhanced databases 
CURRENT SCIENCE 89 : 1537 2005 

JACSO P
Google Scholar: the pros and the cons 
ONLINE INFORMATION REVIEW 29 : 208 2005 

KURTZ MJ
The effect of use and access on citations 
INFORMATION PROCESSING & MANAGEMENT 41 : 1395 DOI 
10.1016/j.ipm.2005.03.010 2005 

LAWRENCE S
Free online availability substantially increases a paper's impact 
NATURE 411 : 521 2001 

MEHO LI
Impact of data sources on citation counts and rankings of LIS faculty: Web 
of science versus scopus and google scholar 
JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 
58 : 2105 DOI 10.1002/asi.20677 2007 

METCALFE TS
The citation impact of digital preprint archives for solar physics papers 
SOLAR PHYSICS 239 : 549 DOI 10.1007/s11207-006-0262-7 2006 

MOED H
CITATION ANAL RES EV : 2005 

MOED H
EFFECT OPEN ACCESS C : 2006 

MYHILL M
CHARLESTON ADVISOR 6 : 49 2005 

NEDERHOF AJ
SCIENTOMETRICS 66 : 81 2006 

NORRIS M
Comparing alternatives to the Web of Science for coverage of the social 
sciences' literature 
JOURNAL OF INFORMETRICS 1 : 161 DOI 10.1016/j.joi.2006.12.001 2007 

NOTESS G
SCHOLARLY WEB SEARCH : 2005 

OPTHOF T
Sense and nonsense about the impact factor 
CARDIOVASCULAR RESEARCH 33 : 1 1997 

SALE A
COMP IR CONTENT POLI : 2005 

SCHWARZ G
DEMOGRAPHIC CITATION : 2004 

SWAN A
OA SELF ARCH AUTHOR : 2005 

VANLEEUWEN TN
Holy Grail of science policy: Exploring and combining bibliometric tools 
in search of scientific excellence 
SCIENTOMETRICS 57 : 257 2003 

VAUGHAN L
Web citation data for impact assessment: A comparison of four science 
disciplines 
JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 
56 : 1075 DOI 10.1002/asi.20199 2005 

WREN JD
BMJ 330 : 2005