Open Access Policy Series (April 14, 2020)

A publication about Open Access (OA) from the University of Lethbridge Library.Open Access Policy Benefits Authors In this month’s article on the University’s recently approved Open Access Policy, we look at research highlighting a strong citation advantage enjoyed by U of L authors who publish their articles in open access (OA) venues. We also take a brief look at other benefits of making your article available OA. Do we have reliable evidence of a general OA citation advantage? It is reasonable to think an article that is (lawfully) accessible by anyone with Internet access will likely be cited more frequently than a paywalled article. Evidence showing this to be true is plentiful. One key source is SPARC Europe’s 2015 update of the OpCit Project list of research on whether there is a citation advantage for OA articles. Just a year later, SPARC Europe halted further updating of the list of studies “since the citation advantage evidence has now become far more common knowledge to our authors.†What about U of L-specific evidence of an OA citation advantage? Through a U of L colleague, we obtained findings within a large study by the Curtin University Open Knowledge Initiative (COKI) illustrating exactly that. The COKI dataset comprised all articles published from 2000 to 2018 having an assigned DOI (digital object identifier). The subset that was shared with us is limited to articles having at least one U of L-affiliated author. Chart 1 presents the annual number of published U of L-authored articles with DOIs over the past 12 years, with a breakdown between OA and non-OA articles. The proportion of each year’s total articles that are OA doubled from 22% in 2007 to 44% in 2016, then fell back slightly to 39% by 2018. Are all OA articles created equal? No, as there are many flavours of OA. Within the COKI dataset, our understanding is that OA includes:• “Gold†OA (publisher’s version of record [VOR] immediately and permanently publicly available upon publication in an OA journal or other OA venue under an open license), • “Green†OA (author’s accepted manuscript [AAM] archived in research repositories [e.g., OPUS, PubMed Central], often becoming publicly available only after the expiry of a publisher-imposed embargo period, with the VOR remaining paywalled), • “Bronze†OA (VOR publicly available for an unspecified period of time on the publisher’s website, published without an open license), and • “Hybrid†OA (VOR immediately and permanently publicly available upon publication under an open license, but published in a paywalled venue [e.g., a traditional subscription journal] where typically most of the other items are paywalled).Other OA benefits for authors? Even if an OA article is not cited in subsequent research, it’s more likely than a paywalled article to be viewed or read. For example, Piwowar, Priem, and Orr (2019) found that “Green, Gold, and Hybrid papers receive more views than their Closed or Bronze counterparts, particularly Green papers made available within a year of publication.” For other author benefits of OA, see the FAQ and Policy Brief on the University of Lethbridge Open Access Policy webpage. This is the second article in a series launched last month on the University’s OA Policy which applies to faculty, undergraduate and graduate students, and post-doctoral fellows. _____________________ UWeekly April 14, 202