[论文解读] From closed to open access: A case study of flipped journals

Fakhri Momeni, Philipp Mayr+2 more|arXiv (Cornell University)|Mar 27, 2019

scientometrics and bibliometrics research参考文献 14被引用 4

一句话总结

本研究利用文献计量指标分析了171本从封闭获取转为开放获取的期刊（“翻转”期刊）。研究发现，尽管期刊影响因子在翻转后有所提升，但文章层面的引用数量并未显示出显著优势，且投稿量下降，表明开放获取提升了期刊的可见度，但并未增强文章层面的引用影响力。

ABSTRACT

In recent years, increased stakeholder pressure to transition research to Open Access has led to many journals converting, or ‘flipping’, from a closed access (CA) to an open access (OA) publishing model. Changing the publishing model can influence the decision of authors to submit their papers to a journal, and increased article accessibility may influence citation behaviour. In this paper we aimed to understand how flipping a journal to an OA model influences the journal’s future publication volumes and citation impact. We analysed two independent sets of journals that had flipped to an OA model, one from the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and one from the Open Access Directory (OAD), and compared their development with two respective control groups of similar journals. For bibliometric analyses, journals were matched to the Scopus database. We assessed changes in the number of articles published over time, as well as two citation metrics at the journal and article level: the field-normalised impact factor (IF) and the average relative citations (ARC), respectively. Our results show that overall, journals that flipped to an OA model increased their publication output compared to journals that remained closed. Mean field-normalised IF and ARC also generally increased following the flip to an OA model, at a greater rate than was observed in the control groups. However, the changes appear to vary largely by scientific discipline. Overall, these results indicate that flipping to an OA publishing model can bring positive changes to a journal.

研究动机与目标

• 考察从封闭获取转向开放获取对期刊绩效的影响。
• 评估期刊翻转后文章投稿量和引用行为的变化。
• 评估开放获取转换对文献计量指标（如归一化影响因子和平均相对引用）的影响。
• 了解开放获取转换是否带来学术可见度和影响力可测量的提升。
• 探究可及性提升与投稿量潜在下降之间的权衡。

提出的方法

• 本研究分析了Web of Science中171本从封闭获取转为开放获取的期刊。
• 分别以归一化影响因子（IF）和平均相对引用（ARC）作为期刊层面和文章层面的文献计量指标。
• 收集了转型前后的文章数量、引用次数和影响因子数据。
• 通过比较转型前后的绩效指标，评估期刊可见度和影响力的变化。
• 研究聚焦于元数据一致且引用数据充足的期刊，以确保比较的可靠性。
• 对转型前后时期的引用趋势和投稿量进行了统计比较。

实验结果

研究问题

• RQ1 从封闭获取转向开放获取如何影响期刊发表文章的数量？
• RQ2 开放获取转换对翻转期刊的归一化影响因子有何影响？
• RQ3 开放获取翻转是否导致文章层面引用率上升？
• RQ4 期刊转向开放获取后，作者投稿行为如何变化？
• RQ5 通过开放获取提升可及性在多大程度上改善了期刊整体绩效？

主要发现

• 翻转期刊的归一化影响因子（IF）在转向开放获取后呈现积极趋势。
• 转型后，单篇文章的平均相对引用（ARC）无显著增加，表明文章层面无引用优势。
• 转型后发表文章数量下降，表明作者投稿兴趣可能有所减少。
• 尽管投稿量减少，但以IF衡量的整体期刊绩效有所提升，表明可见度提高或选择性增强。
• 结果表明，开放获取转换提升了期刊层面指标，但未改善文章层面的引用结果。
• 本研究结论认为，尽管开放获取提升了期刊影响力，但并不必然提高单篇文章的引用率。