Impact of Open Access Models on Citation Metrics

Abstract

We report results of selection-bias-free approaches to the analysis of the impact of open access (OA) models on citation metrics. We studied reference groups of Gold and Green OA articles and the group of non-OA (Paywall) articles with the new functionality of the Web of Science Core Collection database, the InCites platform of Clarivate Analytics, and the Dimensions database of Digital Science. For each reference group we obtained the values of the percent of cited articles and citation impact and their dependence on the depth of the citation period. Different research fields were analyzed in two schemas of the InCites platform. We report the higher values and growth rates of the citation metrics: citation impact and %Cited, in the OA reference groups over the Paywall group. The Green OA articles demonstrate the highest values of citation metrics among all the OA models. Dependence of the value of citation impact on citation period follows linear law with R2 values close to 0.9-1.0. The overall annual growth rates of citation impact of the Green OA, Gold OA, and the Paywall articles, k equal, respectively, 3.6, 2.4, and 1.4 in Dimensions and 4.6, 3.6, and 2.3 in the Web of Science Core Collection. We suppose that earlier results reported for the articles in pure OA journals vs. articles in Paywall journals were affected by the high citation impact of the Green and Hybrid OA articles that could not be elucidated in the Paywall journals at that time.