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Article processing charges, altmetrics and citation impact: Is there an economic rationale?

Author

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  • Abdelghani Maddi

    (Observatoire Des Sciences Et Techniques, Hcéres)

  • David Sapinho

    (Observatoire Des Sciences Et Techniques, Hcéres)

Abstract

The present study aims to analyze (1) the relationship between Citation Normalized Score of scientific publications and Article Processing Charges (APCs) of Gold Open Access (OA) publications (2) the determinants of APCs. To do so, we used APCs information provided by the OpenAPC database, citation scores of publications from the WoS database and, for Altmetrics, data from Altmetrics.com database, over the period from 2006 to 2019 for 83,752 articles published in 4751 journals belonging to 267 distinct publishers. Results show that contrary to common belief, paying high APCs does not necessarily increase the impact of publications. First, large publishers with high impact are not the most expensive. Second, publishers with the highest APCs are not necessarily the best in terms of impact. Correlation between APCs and impact is moderate. Regarding the determinants, results indicate that APCs are on average 50% higher in hybrid journals than in full OA journals. The results also suggest that Altmetrics do not have a great impact: OA articles that have garnered the most attention on internet are articles with relatively low APCs. Another interesting result is that the "number of readers" indicator is more effective as it is more correlated with classic bibliometrics indicators than the Altmetrics score.

Suggested Citation

  • Abdelghani Maddi & David Sapinho, 2022. "Article processing charges, altmetrics and citation impact: Is there an economic rationale?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(12), pages 7351-7368, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:127:y:2022:i:12:d:10.1007_s11192-022-04284-y
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-022-04284-y
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Stephen Pinfield & Jennifer Salter & Peter A. Bath, 2016. "The “total cost of publication” in a hybrid open-access environment: Institutional approaches to funding journal article-processing charges in combination with subscriptions," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 67(7), pages 1751-1766, July.
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    5. Abdelghani Maddi & Yves Gingras, 2021. "Gender Diversity In Research Teams And Citation Impact In Economics And Management," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(5), pages 1381-1404, December.
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    14. Hajar Sotudeh & Zahra Ghasempour & Maryam Yaghtin, 2015. "The citation advantage of author-pays model: the case of Springer and Elsevier OA journals," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 104(2), pages 581-608, August.
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    18. Michael Cary & Taylor Rockwell, 2020. "International Collaboration in Open Access Publications: How Income Shapes International Collaboration," Publications, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-24, February.
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    Cited by:

    1. María Bordons & Borja González-Albo & Luz Moreno-Solano, 2023. "Improving our understanding of open access: how it relates to funding, internationality of research and scientific leadership," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(8), pages 4651-4676, August.
    2. Sumiko Asai, 2023. "Does double dipping occur? The case of Wiley’s hybrid journals," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(9), pages 5159-5168, September.
    3. Ahmad Yaman Abdin & Francesco De Pretis, 2024. "Measuring Open Access Uptake: Methods and Metrics to Assess a Market Transformation," Publications, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-5, October.
    4. Abdelghani Maddi & David Sapinho, 2023. "On the culture of open access: the Sci-hub paradox," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(10), pages 5647-5658, October.
    5. Claudio Vitari & Zakaria Laala, 2024. "Open access for degrowth: a literature review on the economic, social, and environmental impact of journal models," Post-Print hal-04633659, HAL.
    6. Xinyi Chen, 2024. "Interactions of Publication Volume, Journal Impact, and Article Processing Charges: Comparative Study of China and Global Practices in Nature Portfolio," Publications, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-17, December.

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