SynthesisPloS one2021
Is the open access citation advantage real? A systematic review of the citation of open access and subscription-based articles.
Synthesis in PloS one, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 37 papers.
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
37 citing papers in PubMed.
- Is it worth publishing Open Access? - the scientific impact of Open Access publications in the field of medical education.Medical education online · 2026Article
- Commentary: Making Patient Data Count-Opportunities and Challenges for Open Science in Clinical Psychology.Journal of clinical psychology · 2026Article
- Who Gets to Be Read? Factors Affecting Full-Text Access Rates in Periodontology and Implantology Research.International journal of dental hygiene · 2026Article
- Global research trends and frontier evolution in robot-assisted distal pancreatectomy: a bibliometric and visualization analysis.Journal of robotic surgery · 2026Review
- Orthopaedic publications receive fewer citations than general medicine articles: a scientometric analysis of temporal trends.Journal of orthopaedics and traumatology : official journal of the Italian Society of Orthopaedics and Traumatology · 2026Review
- Global Research Trends in Home Mechanical Ventilation: A Bibliometric Analysis.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Open Access as a Launchpad: Educational Pathways in Early-Career Scientific Publishing.Cureus · 2026Article
- The publish or perish, publish and perish, publish then perish, and now retract and perish cultures in academia.Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's archives of pharmacology · 2026Article
- Ophthalmology journal article processing charges for publications in a post-COVID world.Digital journal of ophthalmology : DJO · 2026Article
- Early citation dynamics and predictors of time to first citation in Ecuadorian medical publications: a survival analysis of research visibility.Frontiers in research metrics and analytics · 2026Article
- Benefits and harms of copyright restrictions and conditions on burnout and other psychometric assessment scales.PloS one · 2026Article
- The academic impact of Open Science: a scoping review.Royal Society open science · 2025Review
- Global Knowledge Map and Emerging Research Trends in Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells and Hereditary Diseases: A CiteSpace-based Visualization and Analysis.Stem cell reviews and reports · 2025Review
- Impact of a Fulbright award: A bibliometric analysis of persistence.Health SA = SA Gesondheid · 2025Article
- Discoverability of African Journals by Google Scholar and Inclusion in Scopus.Gates open research · 2025Article
- Pediatric Orthopaedic Studies Published Open Access are Associated with Increased Citation Rates.Journal of the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America · 2024Article
- Open Access: Opening or Closing Doors for Junior Faculty?Journal of general internal medicine · 2024Article
- Bibliometric top ten healthcare-related ChatGPT publications in the first ChatGPT anniversary.Narra J · 2024Article
- Reducing the quality of our evidence base by publishing at any cost.The Angle orthodontist · 2024Article
- Reducing the quality of our evidence base by publishing at any cost.European journal of orthodontics · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
aimsOver the last two decades, the existence of an open access citation advantage (OACA)-increased citation of articles made available open access (OA)-has been the topic of much discussion. While there has been substantial research to address this question, findings have been contradictory and inconclusive. We conducted a systematic review to compare studies of citations to OA and non-OA articles.
methodsA systematic search of 17 databases attempted to capture all relevant studies authored since 2001. The protocol was registered in Open Science Framework. We included studies with a direct comparison between OA and non-OA items and reported article-level citation as an outcome. Both randomized and non-randomized studies were included. No limitations were placed on study design, language, or publication type.
resultsA total of 5,744 items were retrieved. Ultimately, 134 items were identified for inclusion. 64 studies (47.8%) confirmed the existence of OACA, while 37 (27.6%) found that it did not exist, 32 (23.9%) found OACA only in subsets of their sample, and 1 study (0.8%) was inconclusive. Studies with a focus on multiple disciplines were significantly positively associated with finding that OACA exists in subsets, and are less associated with finding that OACA did not exist. In the critical appraisal of the included studies, 3 were found to have an overall low risk of bias. Of these, one found that an OACA existed, one found that it did not, and one found that an OACA occurred in subsets.
conclusionsAs seen through the large number of studies identified for this review, OACA is a topic of continuing interest. Quality and heterogeneity of the component studies pose challenges for generalization. The results suggest the need for reporting guidelines for bibliometrics studies.
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.