E-prints and Journal Articles in Astronomy: a Productive Co-existence

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that e-prints from arXiv complement rather than replace journal articles in astronomy, with astronomers preferring journal papers post-publication and e-prints having a shorter usage half-life.

Contribution

It provides empirical evidence that e-prints do not undermine journal article usage in astronomy and analyzes readership patterns and half-lives of e-prints versus journal articles.

Findings

E-prints do not reduce journal article readership in astronomy.

Astronomers prefer journal articles after publication, with e-prints serving as initial access.

E-prints have a shorter usage half-life compared to journal articles.

Abstract

Are the e-prints (electronic preprints) from the arXiv repository being used instead of the journal articles? In this paper we show that the e-prints have not undermined the usage of journal papers in the astrophysics community. As soon as the journal article is published, the astronomical community prefers to read the journal article and the use of e-prints through the NASA Astrophysics Data System drops to zero. This suggests that the majority of astronomers have access to institutional subscriptions and that they choose to read the journal article when given the choice. Within the NASA Astrophysics Data System they are given this choice, because the e-print and the journal article are treated equally, since both are just one click away. In other words, the e-prints have not undermined journal use in the astrophysics community and thus currently do not pose a financial threat to the publishers. We present readership data for the arXiv category "astro-ph" and the 4 core journals in astronomy (Astrophysical Journal, Astronomical Journal, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society and Astronomy & Astrophysics). Furthermore, we show that the half-life (the point where the use of an article drops to half the use of a newly published article) for an e-print is shorter than for a journal paper. The ADS is funded by NASA Grant NNG06GG68G. arXiv receives funding from NSF award #0404553