Do journals flipping to Gold Open Access show an OA Citation or Publication Advantage?

TL;DR

This study investigates whether journals that switch to Gold Open Access experience increased citations or publication output, finding evidence for a citation advantage but no publication advantage after the switch.

Contribution

It provides empirical evidence on the citation and publication impacts of journals flipping to Gold OA, using two large datasets and control groups.

Findings

Evidence of an OA Citation advantage post-switch

No significant OA Publication advantage observed

Shifts in author affiliation countries analyzed

Abstract

The effects of Open Access (OA) upon journal performance are investigated. The key research question holds: How does the citation impact and publication output of journals switching ('flipping') from non-OA to Gold-OA develop after their switch to Gold-OA? A review is given of the literature, with an emphasis on studies dealing with flipping journals. Two study sets with 119 and 100 flipping journals, derived from two different OA data sources (DOAJ and OAD), are compared with two control groups, one based on a standard bibliometric criterion, and a second controlling for a journal's national orientation. Comparing post-switch indicators with pre-switch ones in paired T-tests, evidence was obtained of an OA Citation advantage but not of an OA Publication Advantage. Shifts in the affiliation countries of publishing and citing authors are characterized in terms of countries' income class and geographical world region. Suggestions are made for qualitative follow-up studies to obtain more insight into OA flipping or reverse-flipping