Effect of E-printing on Citation Rates in Astronomy and Physics

TL;DR

This study analyzes how the introduction of the arXiv e-print repository has increased citation rates for papers in astronomy and physics, confirming prior findings and highlighting the prominence of e-printed papers in major journals.

Contribution

It provides empirical evidence that e-printed papers receive more citations and are often submitted first to arXiv in major astronomy and physics journals.

Findings

E-printed papers have higher citation counts.

Major journals favor e-printed papers.

E-prints are often submitted before journal publication.

Abstract

In this report we examine the change in citation behavior since the introduction of the arXiv e-print repository (Ginsparg, 2001). It has been observed that papers that initially appear as arXiv e-prints get cited more than papers that do not (Lawrence, 2001; Brody et al., 2004; Schwarz & Kennicutt, 2004; Kurtz et al., 2005a, Metcalfe, 2005). Using the citation statistics from the NASA-Smithsonian Astrophysics Data System (ADS; Kurtz et al., 1993, 2000), we confirm the findings from other studies, we examine the average citation rate to e-printed papers in the Astrophysical Journal, and we show that for a number of major astronomy and physics journals the most important papers are submitted to the arXiv e-print repository first.