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On the impact of Gold Open Access journals

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Abstract

Gold Open Access (=Open Access publishing) is for many the preferred route to achieve unrestricted and immediate access to research output. However, true Gold Open Access journals are still outnumbered by traditional journals. Moreover availability of Gold OA journals differs from discipline to discipline and often leaves scientists concerned about the impact of these existent titles. This study identified the current set of Gold Open Access journals featuring a Journal Impact Factor (JIF) by means of Ulrichsweb, Directory of Open Access Journals and Journal Citation Reports (JCR). The results were analyzed regarding disciplines, countries, quartiles of the JIF distribution in JCR and publishers. Furthermore the temporal impact evolution was studied for a Top 50 titles list (according to JIF) by means of Journal Impact Factor, SJR and SNIP in the time interval 2000–2010. The identified top Gold Open Access journals proved to be well-established and their impact is generally increasing for all the analyzed indicators. The majority of JCR-indexed OA journals can be assigned to Life Sciences and Medicine. The success-rate for JCR inclusion differs from country to country and is often inversely proportional to the number of national OA journal titles. Compiling a list of JCR-indexed OA journals is a cumbersome task that can only be achieved with non-Thomson Reuters data sources. A corresponding automated feature to produce current lists “on the fly” would be desirable in JCR in order to conveniently track the impact evolution of Gold OA journals.

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Notes

  1. Available: http://www.doaj.org [Accessed: August 08, 2012].

  2. Appendix C: how many active, scholarly peer reviewed journals? Available: http://pages.cmns.sfu.ca/heather-morrison/appendix-c-how-many-active-scholarly-peer-reviewed-journals/ [Accessed: April 10, 2012].

  3. The Thomson Reuters journal selection process. Available: http://thomsonreuters.com/products_services/science/free/essays/journal_selection_process/ [Accessed: October 29, 2012].

  4. Pareto principle. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle [Accessed: October 29, 2012].

  5. Bradford’s Law. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradford%27s_law [Accessed: October 29, 2012].

  6. It is important to know that JCR refers to Q1 as the highest quartile including the category’s top 25 % journals, whereas Q1 in conventional descriptive statistics delimits the lower 25 % of the distribution.

  7. In early August 2012 this number has risen to >8,000 titles.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Steve Reding and Ambros Wernisch for their support with data compilation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    Christian Gumpenberger & Juan Gorraiz

  2. Carlos III University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    María-Antonia Ovalle-Perandones

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  1. Christian Gumpenberger
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  2. María-Antonia Ovalle-Perandones
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  3. Juan Gorraiz
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Correspondence to Christian Gumpenberger.

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Gumpenberger, C., Ovalle-Perandones, MA. & Gorraiz, J. On the impact of Gold Open Access journals. Scientometrics 96, 221–238 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-012-0902-7

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