Open access journals: in the ISI citation databases: analysis of impact factors and citation patterns

@techreport{citeulike:320959, abstract = {The value and viability of Open Access (OA) journals remain prominent topics of debate in the library and publishing communities for many months now. In the time since Thomson Scientific (a Thomson business) first studied the citation impact of Open Access (OA) journals using the 2002 Journal Citation Reports® (JCR®), discussion of the value and viability of this access model has continued. When the 2003 JCR was published in June 2004, we took the opportunity to re-examine the coverage and citation performance of OA journals in the ISI® citation databases in the context of the emerging issues in the open access debate. We have also broadened the study to consider not only OA journals, but the potential influence of other types of OA publishing on the availability of materials covered by Thomson products. An increasing number of journals covered in the ISI citation databases are adopting an OA distribution model. In addition, we continue to evaluate and select new OA journals. Although the largest number of OA journals is in Medicine and Life Sciences, OA journals in Physics, Engineering \& Mathematics are more frequently among the highest ranking journals in their categories. It is still the case that more of the currently available OA journals rank in the lower half of their subject category, despite the presence of some OA journals in the top ranks. Within the collection of OA titles, however, there is a notable tendency to rank higher by Immediacy Index than by Impact Factor, irrespective of the subject. Open Access journals are not necessarily new publications. In fact, Open Access at the journal level comprises a complex picture of availability. Many established journals make only a few recent years of content available online, while the majority of their content is accessible only through traditional access paths. Other established journals, having moved to OA distribution, offer access to many years of older content as well. The evolving environment of scholarly publishing includes additional avenues for making content openly available. Our findings suggest that over 55\% of the journals and over 65\% of the articles indexed in Web of Science® in 2003 are produced by publishers who permit some form of self-archiving, and could be made OA by author archiving.}, author = {Mcveigh, Marie E. }, citeulike-article-id = {320959}, editor = {Thomson}, keywords = {impact\_factor, isi, open\_journal\_systems}, posted-at = {2007-06-09 14:52:09}, priority = {2}, title = {Open access journals: in the ISI citation databases: analysis of impact factors and citation patterns}, url = {http://www.thomsonisi.com/media/presentrep/essayspdf/openaccesscitations2.pdf} }

TY - RPRT ID - citeulike:320959 L3 - citeulike-article-id:320959 TI - Open access journals: in the ISI citation databases: analysis of impact factors and citation patterns N2 - The value and viability of Open Access (OA) journals remain prominent topics of debate in the library and publishing communities for many months now. In the time since Thomson Scientific (a Thomson business) first studied the citation impact of Open Access (OA) journals using the 2002 Journal Citation Reports® (JCR®), discussion of the value and viability of this access model has continued. When the 2003 JCR was published in June 2004, we took the opportunity to re-examine the coverage and citation performance of OA journals in the ISI® citation databases in the context of the emerging issues in the open access debate. We have also broadened the study to consider not only OA journals, but the potential influence of other types of OA publishing on the availability of materials covered by Thomson products. An increasing number of journals covered in the ISI citation databases are adopting an OA distribution model. In addition, we continue to evaluate and select new OA journals. Although the largest number of OA journals is in Medicine and Life Sciences, OA journals in Physics, Engineering & Mathematics are more frequently among the highest ranking journals in their categories. It is still the case that more of the currently available OA journals rank in the lower half of their subject category, despite the presence of some OA journals in the top ranks. Within the collection of OA titles, however, there is a notable tendency to rank higher by Immediacy Index than by Impact Factor, irrespective of the subject. Open Access journals are not necessarily new publications. In fact, Open Access at the journal level comprises a complex picture of availability. Many established journals make only a few recent years of content available online, while the majority of their content is accessible only through traditional access paths. Other established journals, having moved to OA distribution, offer access to many years of older content as well. The evolving environment of scholarly publishing includes additional avenues for making content openly available. Our findings suggest that over 55% of the journals and over 65% of the articles indexed in Web of Science® in 2003 are produced by publishers who permit some form of self-archiving, and could be made OA by author archiving. KW - impact_factor KW - isi KW - open_journal_systems AU - Mcveigh, Marie A2 - Thomson UR - http://www.thomsonisi.com/media/presentrep/essayspdf/openaccesscitations2.pdf ER -