I am quite interested in the debate regarding Open Access (OA) to scientific publications. Accordingly, this week my attention was drawn to a one-page article in Science by University of Chicago researchers James Evans and Jacob Reimer titled Open Access and Global Participation in Science.
The question of how OA influences science is a popular one. In the last decade, many studies have addressed the question: are OA papers more widely disseminated, read and cited? Evans and Reimer take a new perspective and ask how the influence varies by per capita gross national income (GNI).
The results of this study show that in the developing world, the OA Effect is significantly greater than it is in first world countries. Evans and Reimer report their results in terms of percent increase in citations and say that OA leads to ~8% increase in countries with the highest GNI. As shown in the graph below, “The influence of OA was more than twice as strong in the developing world”*.
Percentage increase in citations after free online access versus GNI*
Just as journals are often judged on their Impact Factor, scientists are often judged on their H-index. Increased citation rates should motivate publishers to provide an OA option and motivate scientists to pay for such an option when available. Both groups would do well to take note of the global perspective presented in Open Access and Global Participation in Science.
*Open Access and Global Participation in Science. Evans, James A and Reimer, Jacob. 2009, Science, Vol. 323, p. 1025.
Great take on this article.
Many people who are discussing this work are focusing on the authors’ misguided interpretations – such as ~%8 increase in citations is not large enough to be important. But you hit the nail on the head and focused on the key message that the results deliver: the OA effect is even stronger outside of the top research countries and therefore even more important than the previous investigations (which were almost entirely from the limited perspective of only examining science in the top research countries) revealed.
You know, we in the developing world also think that Open Access is the best thing since sliced bread – IF you can afford the charges…!! And of course, given that these are high enough (>USD1000/article) to make a substantial dent in anyone’s research grant this far south…about 10% of the average start-up grant here in South Africa, which means people are loath to publish OA.
And we are sufficiently “developed” that it is a hit-and-miss affair as to whether or not we get a rebate / free ride. Grey areas: bad place to be, scientifically. Check out http://blogs.uct.ac.za/blog/retroid-raving/2009/05/11/paying-for-publication for a S Africa-local view on the topic.