ArticleBMJ (Clinical research ed.)2008
Open access publishing, article downloads, and citations: randomised controlled trial.
Article in BMJ (Clinical research ed.), 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 66 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
66 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Is the open access citation advantage real? A systematic review of the citation of open access and subscription-based articles.PloS one · 2021Pooled it
- Probiotic Strains and Intervention Total Doses for Modulating Obesity-Related Microbiota Dysbiosis: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Nutrients · 2020Pooled it
- Citation Advantage of Promoted Articles in a Cross-Publisher Distribution Platform: 36-Month Follow-up to a Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of medical Internet research · 2021Trial
- Is it worth publishing Open Access? - the scientific impact of Open Access publications in the field of medical education.Medical education online · 2026Article
- Methodological and Historical Evolution of Indexed Publications in Occupational Therapy.The British journal of occupational therapy · 2026Review
- The academic impact of Open Science: a scoping review.Royal Society open science · 2025Review
- A year in review - evaluating the launch of IJTLD OPEN.IJTLD open · 2025Article
- Publications of systematic review and meta-analysis in the indexed anesthesia journals: a 10-year bibliometric analysis.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Review
- Current status of dental journals published by Japanese organization.The Japanese dental science review · 2024Review
- Pediatric Orthopaedic Studies Published Open Access are Associated with Increased Citation Rates.Journal of the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America · 2024Article
- Extended reality in cranial and spinal neurosurgery - a bibliometric analysis.Acta neurochirurgica · 2024Review
- The Effect of Open Access on Scholarly and Societal Metrics of Impact in the ASHA Journals.Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR · 2023Article
- Factors Associated With Open Access Publishing Costs in Oncology Journals: Cross-sectional Observational Study.JMIR formative research · 2023Article
- Is open science a double-edged sword?: data sharing and the changing citation pattern of Chinese economics articles.Scientometrics · 2023Article
- Commentary: Paradigm shift in scientometric indices and publication policies of various ophthalmology journals.Indian journal of ophthalmology · 2022Article
- Comparison of citation rates between Covid-19 and non-Covid-19 articles across 24 major scientific journals.PloS one · 2022Article
- Do open-access dermatology articles have higher citation counts than those with subscription-based access?PloS one · 2022Article
- Article Processing Charge Waiver Policies as a Barrier to Oncology Scholarship in Low- and Lower-Middle-Income Countries.JCO global oncology · 2021Article
- The 100 top-cited meta-analyses of diagnostic accuracy in radiology journals: a bibliometric analysis.Insights into imaging · 2020Article
- Mandating access: assessing the NIH's public access policy.Economic policy · 2020Article
6 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo measure the effect of free access to the scientific literature on article downloads and citations.
designRandomised controlled trial.
setting11 journals published by the American Physiological Society.
participants1619 research articles and reviews.
main outcome measuresArticle readership (measured as downloads of full text, PDFs, and abstracts) and number of unique visitors (internet protocol addresses). Citations to articles were gathered from the Institute for Scientific Information after one year.
interventionsRandom assignment on online publication of articles published in 11 scientific journals to open access (treatment) or subscription access (control).
resultsArticles assigned to open access were associated with 89% more full text downloads (95% confidence interval 76% to 103%), 42% more PDF downloads (32% to 52%), and 23% more unique visitors (16% to 30%), but 24% fewer abstract downloads (-29% to -19%) than subscription access articles in the first six months after publication. Open access articles were no more likely to be cited than subscription access articles in the first year after publication. Fifty nine per cent of open access articles (146 of 247) were cited nine to 12 months after publication compared with 63% (859 of 1372) of subscription access articles. Logistic and negative binomial regression analysis of article citation counts confirmed no citation advantage for open access articles.
conclusionsOpen access publishing may reach more readers than subscription access publishing. No evidence was found of a citation advantage for open access articles in the first year after publication. The citation advantage from open access reported widely in the literature may be an artefact of other causes.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.