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The effect of open access on research quality

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  • van Vlokhoven, Has

Abstract

The number of articles being published open access has been increasing and some research funders are starting to mandate their researchers to publish solely in open access-only journals. Reasons to promote open access include that it might lower costs and increase the diffusion of knowledge. One unintended consequence of moving to a system in which all journals are APC-based open access might be that high-quality journals become more lenient and start accepting lower quality articles compared to what they would do under subscription-based access. Using a game-theoretical analysis I show that this is indeed the case as long as readers value research quality to some extent. Moreover, if in addition to open access authors are no longer evaluated based on metrics of the journals in which they publish then quality standards of journals will deteriorate further. Hence, journals will no longer be providing the service of selecting the highest quality articles to its readers. This might in fact lower the diffusion of knowledge, as readers will have to spend more time on judging the quality, being at odds with one of the main reasons for promoting open access.

Suggested Citation

  • van Vlokhoven, Has, 2019. "The effect of open access on research quality," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 751-756.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:infome:v:13:y:2019:i:2:p:751-756
    DOI: 10.1016/j.joi.2019.04.001
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Saarela, Mirka & Kärkkäinen, Tommi, 2020. "Can we automate expert-based journal rankings? Analysis of the Finnish publication indicator," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 14(2).
    2. Raminta Pranckutė, 2021. "Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus: The Titans of Bibliographic Information in Today’s Academic World," Publications, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-59, March.
    3. Fosso Wamba, Samuel & Bawack, Ransome Epie & Guthrie, Cameron & Queiroz, Maciel M. & Carillo, Kevin Daniel André, 2021. "Are we preparing for a good AI society? A bibliometric review and research agenda," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    4. Fernanda Morillo, 2020. "Is open access publication useful for all research fields? Presence of funding, collaboration and impact," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 125(1), pages 689-716, October.
    5. Hajar Sotudeh & Zeinab Saber & Farzin Ghanbari Aloni & Mahdieh Mirzabeigi & Farshad Khunjush, 2022. "A longitudinal study of the evolution of opinions about open access and its main features: a twitter sentiment analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(10), pages 5587-5611, October.
    6. Sergio Copiello, 2020. "Business as Usual with Article Processing Charges in the Transition towards OA Publishing: A Case Study Based on Elsevier," Publications, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-14, January.
    7. Russell J. Gray, 2020. "Sorry, we’re open: Golden open-access and inequality in non-human biological sciences," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 124(2), pages 1663-1675, August.
    8. Liwei Zhang & Liang Ma, 2021. "Does open data boost journal impact: evidence from Chinese economics," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(4), pages 3393-3419, April.

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