Does free‐access to scholarly articles increase readership and citation impact? A randomized controlled, multi‐publisher, multi‐journal study

Abstract

Abstract Open Access is a lightening rod for controversy in scholarly communication, attracting more opinions and rhetoric than hard data. The limited numbers of empirical studies to date have used methodologies that do not adequately control for potential biases and competing explanations. We propose the first randomized controlled study of Open Access publishing to ascertain whether providing free access to scholarly articles leads to greater readership and increased citation impact. This experiment will involve seven publishers and 36 research journals (plus an additional twelve control journals), allowing greater generalizability over subject disciplines in the sciences, social sciences and humanities.

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