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"How to compare research impact of toll- vs. open-access research" http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/2858.html Fyi and posting. Gene Eugene Garfield, PhD. http://www.eugenegarfield.org/ President, The Scientist LLC. http://www.the-scientist.com/ Chairman Emeritus, ISI http://www.isinet.com/ Attached is the news release regarding Open Access journals covered by Web of Science. <<OpenAccess.doc>> Rodney Yancey Manager, Corporate Communications Thomson Scientific [Amsci Forum Moderator's Note: The ISI press release says: "Today, Thomson ISI... announced that journals published in the new Open Access (OA) model are beginning to register impact in the world of scholarly research... Of the 8,700 selected journals currently covered in Web of Science, 191 are OA journals... [A study on] whether OA journals perform differently from other journals in their respective fields [found] that there was no discernible difference in terms of citation impact or frequency with which the journal is cited." http://www.isinet.com/oaj But if you want to get a better idea of the effect of OA on impact, don't just compare the 2% of ISI journals that are OA journals with the 98% that are not, to find that they are equal in impact (for this may well be comparing apples with oranges). Compare the much higher percentage of *articles* from the 98% non-OA journals that have been made OA by their authors -- by self-archiving them -- with articles (from the very same journals and volumes) that have *not* been made OA by their authors: You will find that there is indeed a discernible difference in terms of frequency with which the *article* is cited, and that that difference is from 250%-550% in favor of the articles that their authors have made OA! That is what an ongoing series of comparisons based on a 10-year sample of the same ISI database across all disciplines is revealing (in computer science and physics so far): http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/OA-TAadvantage.pdf Stevan Harnad.]