Year: 2019
Type: article
Abstract: Objective: Open Access (OA) publishing is a global movement that may increase access to clinical trial results to the healthcare providers and patients. To assess the percentage of manuscripts published OA over an 8 year period (2010–2018) and the impact of OA on reach.Research design and methods: OA publications were defined as any Creative Commons (CC) license that allowed the consumer to read for free. Digital object identifiers (DOIs) for 3321 Company-sponsored manuscripts from January 1, 2010 to June 30, 2018 were entered into Unpaywall.org, which returned license information. Trends in OA licenses over time were assessed. For 390 publications (2017–2018) with mentions (Altmetric.com) and impact factor (IF), we compared the reach of articles published in OA and non-OA journals, IF, and when OA journals were selected (1st, 2nd, or later journal submission).Results: Unpaywall results for 3321 published articles demonstrated CC licenses increased ∼3-fold (14–41%) over 8 years. Reach or total mentions varied widely (0–1016) across 390 publications in journals with IF ranging from 0–54.42. Only 3/83 OA publications were in journals with IF above the median (3.7). Median mentions for articles in OA journals were similar (16) to those in non-OA journals (13). For primary manuscripts submissions in 2017 through June 30, 2018, OA journals were selected as the first-choice journal for 13% (5/38).Conclusions: The uptake in OA observed over time is likely due to increased awareness, funding, and availability of OA. Although in this sample median reach was similar for OA vs no-OA publications, OA is not yet frequently selected as an initial choice for primary papers.
Language: English
Subfield: Information Systems and Management
Field: Decision Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4234035367