On Fri, 29 Nov 2002, Jan Velterop wrote [in part, on the Subject: Re: UK Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) review]:
>jv> Little wonder that scientists are often not aware of the issues of >jv> serials crises and open access solutions. If they were, many would >jv> be likely to take an attitude to publishing their research that is >jv> similar to their attitude towards scientific problems: experiment >jv> and 'push the envelope'. The theory and the hypotheses are clear. >jv> And experimental results are now, slowly but steadily, becoming >jv> available, such as a generally higher rate of citation for articles >jv> that are freely accessible to anyone. Is there an (openly-accessible) summary of the evidence that supports the hypothesis that openly-accessible research reports generally (i.e. in several quite different disciplines) attract higher citation rates? If such a summary exists, I'd like to know about it. It would be helpful to me in my local OA (and FOS) advocacy efforts. Jim Till University of Toronto
