The document examines the research impact of open access journal articles across different academic disciplines. It defines key terms like open access and research impact. The researchers analyzed over 270 open access articles across 9 disciplines, measuring the number of citations for each. The findings showed that citation characteristics varied between disciplines, with articles in biology, economics and anthropology receiving more citations on average. However, open access articles in hard sciences did not necessarily have higher research impact. The researchers concluded that citation behavior differs from self-archiving behavior and that a larger sample size is needed.

1. The Research Impact of
Open Access Journal Articles
Yaşar Tonta, Yurdagül Ünal & Umut Al
Department of Information Management
Hacettepe University
Ankara, Turkey
{tonta, yurdagul, umutal}@hacettepe.edu.tr
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ELPUB 2007, the 11th International Conference on Electronic Publishing, 13-15 June 2007, Vienna, Austria

2. Outline
Some definitions
Open Access
Research impact
The nature of scientific disciplines
Methodology
Findings
Conclusion
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ELPUB 2007, the 11th International Conference on Electronic Publishing, 13-15 June 2007, Vienna, Austria

3. Related Terms
Open Access: “Free …[online, full-text]
access” to scientific publications
Research impact: Number of times that each
article is cited in literature
Hard/soft; urban/rural; convergent/divergent
scientific disciplines
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ELPUB 2007, the 11th International Conference on Electronic Publishing, 13-15 June 2007, Vienna, Austria

4. The Nature of Scientific Disciplines
Hard Soft
Urban Rural
Convergent Divergent
Physics Biology Anthropology
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ELPUB 2007, the 11th International Conference on Electronic Publishing, 13-15 June 2007, Vienna, Austria

5. Research Questions
Does the research impact of OA articles
differ across the fields in sciences, social
sciences, and arts and humanities?
If it does, do OA articles in hard, urban and
convergent fields receive more citations
(hence higher research impact) than those
in soft, rural, and divergent ones?
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ELPUB 2007, the 11th International Conference on Electronic Publishing, 13-15 June 2007, Vienna, Austria

6. Methodology
DOAJ journals
Journal selection criteria
Nine disciplines
Sample
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ELPUB 2007, the 11th International Conference on Electronic Publishing, 13-15 June 2007, Vienna, Austria

7. The Nature of Scientific Disciplines
Physics Economics Psychology
Mathematics Env. Sci. Sociology
Chem. Eng. Biology Anthropology
hard, urban, convergent soft, rural, divergent
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ELPUB 2007, the 11th International Conference on Electronic Publishing, 13-15 June 2007, Vienna, Austria

8. Sample
# of journals
Subjects in the sample # of total articles sample rate
Physics 6 2,543 1.2
Mathematics 16 1,092 2.7
Chemical Engineering 3 818 3.7
Economics 2 113 26.5
Environmental Sciences 3 247 12.1
Biology 7 690 4.3
Psychology 4 271 11.1
Sociology 3 97 30.9
Anthropology 2 111 27.0
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ELPUB 2007, the 11th International Conference on Electronic Publishing, 13-15 June 2007, Vienna, Austria

9. Scopus
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ELPUB 2007, the 11th International Conference on Electronic Publishing, 13-15 June 2007, Vienna, Austria

10. Descriptive Statistics
270 articles were cited 761 times
Articles with zero citations = 95 (35%)
Average number of citations
Biology 6.4
Economics 5.1
Psychology 0.9
Sociology 0.8
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ELPUB 2007, the 11th International Conference on Electronic Publishing, 13-15 June 2007, Vienna, Austria

11. Distribution of Citations by Subjects N=761
210
192
180
154
150
120
98
N
95
90
63 63
60
44
28
30 24
0
Physics Mathematics Chemical Economics Environmental Biology Psychology Sociology Anthropology
Engineering Sciences
subjects
hard, urban, convergent soft, rural, divergent
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ELPUB 2007, the 11th International Conference on Electronic Publishing, 13-15 June 2007, Vienna, Austria

12. Self-citation Rates
50
46
45 43
40 40
40
35
30
30
%
25 23
21
20
15 14
10
7
5
0
Physics Mathematics Chem ical Economics Environmental Biology Psychology Sociology Anthropology
Engineering Sciences
subjects
hard, urban, convergent soft, rural, divergent
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ELPUB 2007, the 11th International Conference on Electronic Publishing, 13-15 June 2007, Vienna, Austria

13. Obsolescence for OA Articles
30
25
20
%
15
10
5
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
year
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ELPUB 2007, the 11th International Conference on Electronic Publishing, 13-15 June 2007, Vienna, Austria

14. Half-life for OA Articles
2 years
Physics
Mathematics
Biology
Psychology
3 years
Chemical Engineering
Economics
Environmental Sciences
Sociology
Anthropology
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ELPUB 2007, the 11th International Conference on Electronic Publishing, 13-15 June 2007, Vienna, Austria

15. Conclusion
Citation characteristics vary among
disciplines
Citation behavior differs from self-archiving
behavior
OA articles in hard, urban and convergent
fields do not necessarily have higher
research impact
OA articles in Biology, Economics and
Anthropology received more citations
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ELPUB 2007, the 11th International Conference on Electronic Publishing, 13-15 June 2007, Vienna, Austria

16. Further Research
A more representative study with a larger
sample size needs to be carried out
The relationship between research impact
and self-archiving behavior should be
investigated
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ELPUB 2007, the 11th International Conference on Electronic Publishing, 13-15 June 2007, Vienna, Austria

17. The Research Impact of
Open Access Journal Articles
Yaşar Tonta, Yurdagül Ünal & Umut Al
Department of Information Management
Hacettepe University
Ankara, Turkey
{tonta, yurdagul, umutal}@hacettepe.edu.tr
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ELPUB 2007, the 11th International Conference on Electronic Publishing, 13-15 June 2007, Vienna, Austria