Attracted to open access journals: A bibliometric author analysis in the field of biology

International audiencePurpose - Scholars from developing countries have limited access to research publications due to expensive subscription costs. However, the open access movement is challenging the constraint to access. Consequently, researchers in developing countries are often mentioned as major recipients of the benefits when advocating open access (OA). One of the implications of that argument is that authors from developing countries are more likely to perceive open access positively than authors from developed countries. The present study is an investigation of the use of open access by researchers from developing countries and is thus a supplement to the existing author surveys and interviews. Design/methodology/approach – Bibliometric analyses of both publishing behaviour and citing behaviour in relations to OA publishing provide evidence of the impact of open access on developing countries. Findings – The results of the multivariate linear regression show that open access journals are not characterised by a different composition of authors than the traditional toll access journals. Furthermore, the results show that authors from developing countries do not cite open access more than authors from developed countries. Originality/value – This paper argues that authors from developing countries are not more attracted to open access than authors from developed countries. Keywords – open access, bibliometrics, author analysis, developing countries. Article Type: Research pape