COMMENTARY ON: Citing and Reading Behavours in High-Energy Physics (arXiv:0906.5418)

TL;DR

This paper discusses how open access (OA) impacts high-energy physics research, emphasizing that mandates are necessary for wider adoption and that OA's impact advantage is consistent across different access types.

Contribution

It clarifies the relationship between OA practices, mandates, and impact in high-energy physics, highlighting the importance of institutional policies.

Findings

OA increases impact but requires mandates for widespread adoption

HEP researchers continue traditional publishing and preprint practices

OA impact advantage is consistent regardless of access type

Abstract

Evidence confirming that OA increases impact will not be sufficient to induce enough researchers to provide OA; only mandates from their institutions and funders can ensure that. HEP researchers continue to submit their papers to peer-reviewed journals, as they always did, depositing both their unrefereed preprints and their refereed postprints. None of that has changed. In fields like HEP and astrophysics, the journal affordability/accessibility problem is not as great as in many other fields, where it the HEP Early Access impact advantage translates into the OA impact advantage itself. Almost no one has ever argued that Gold OA provides a greater OA advantage than Green OA. The OA advantage is the OA advantage, whether Green or Gold.