[Our objective was to] analyse trends in the journal impact factor (IF) of seven general medical journals (Ann Intern Med, BMJ, CMAJ, JAMA, Lancet, Med J Aust and N Engl J Med) over 12 years; and (2) to ascertain the views of these journals' past and present Editors on factors that had affected their journals' IFs during their tenure, including direct editorial policies....
Only one Editor stated that going online with free full access had increased his journal's IF, which had risen faster than those of specialty journals in the same publishing group that were not fully online....
PS: As far as I know, only two of these journals (BMJ and CMAJ) have enough OA experience to make the claim in the second paragraph. If so, that's one out of two reporting that OA increased IF, not one out of seven.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 3/09/2007 08:36:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
