Open access to research

doi:10.1136/bmj.a1051

Published 31 July 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a1051
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a1051

Editorials

Open access to research

Increases readership but not citations

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

This week the BMJ publishes a paper (doi: 10.1136/bmj.a568)that has nothing directly to do with medicine or health care.¹It does, however, have everything to do with access to researchresults, a topic that should interest authors and readers inany field. The paper asks whether open access (free full textonline publication) increases the chances of an article beingread and cited compared with subscription access publication(where articles are accessible only to individuals or institutionswho pay to subscribe).

It is a question that many have asked and tried to answer sinceacademics first challenged the subscription based publishingmodel over 10 years ago. Open access offered an end to whatthey saw as profiteering by publishers at the expense of theacademic community. It restored a public good. If it could alsooffer higher usage and citation rates, this was icing on thecake. Authors . . . [Full text of this article]

Fiona Godlee, editor

¹ BMJ, London WC1H 9JR

fgodlee@bmj.com

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