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Do open access articles in economics have a citation advantage?

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  • Wohlrabe, Klaus
  • Birkmeier, Daniel

Abstract

We investigate whether articles in economics that are freely available on the web have a citation advantage over articles with a gated access. Our sample consists of articles from 2005 from 13 economic journals (including the top five journals). In addition to standard mean comparisons we also use a negative-binomial regression model with several covariates to control for potential selection effects and quality bias. Using citation data from three different databases (Web of Science, RePEc and Google Scholar) we show that articles that are freely available on the internet have indeed a significantly higher citation count.

Suggested Citation

  • Wohlrabe, Klaus & Birkmeier, Daniel, 2014. "Do open access articles in economics have a citation advantage?," MPRA Paper 56842, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:56842
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    References listed on IDEAS

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      • Patrick Gaulé & Nicolas Maystre, 2008. "Getting cited: does open access help?," CEMI Working Papers cemi-workingpaper-2008-00, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Collège du Management de la Technologie, Management of Technology and Entrepreneurship Institute, Chaire en Economie et Management de l'Innovation.
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    Cited by:

    1. Maja Jokić & Andrea Mervar & Stjepan Mateljan, 2018. "Scientific potential of European fully open access journals," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 114(3), pages 1373-1394, March.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Open Access; Citations; Web of Science; RePEc; Google Scholar;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A12 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Relation of Economics to Other Disciplines
    • A14 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Sociology of Economics

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