Research indicates that articles published via open access outlets normally achieve higher citation counts and increased downloads. Open access publishing typically has much shorter publication times, often only 2-3 months between submission and publication. This means your research findings can be in the public domain while they are still novel, which makes them more likely to be picked up by colleagues. Research by David et al. (2008) found that open access articles were associated with 89% more full text downloads, 42% more PDF downloads, and 23% more unique visitors than subscription access articles in the first six months after publication.
BU staff have access to a dedicated central budget – the Open Access Publication Fund – to meet open access publishing costs.
FHSS academics teaching in Nepal
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Open Access in developing countries
All the points raised by Julie Northam about getting research out faster, leading to better coverage and more citations are extremely important for BU academics. To me one other key selling point of Open Access publishing is that it provides a way for researchers from low-income countries to participate more fully in the international research community. One of the barriers to my friends and colleagues in Nepal, one of the poorer countries in the world, is access to up-to-date scientific literature. Open Access papers are easily accessible in Nepal, obviously only when the electricity works, which is another burden in everyday life which we don’t have to think about.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Comments so far seem to be restricted to the benefits of open access journals. Indeed open access repositories, especially, institutional repositories such as the ones at the University of Southampton and the Indian Institute of Science, are in some ways a better option. Apart from all the advantages conferred by OA journals, repositories can help academic managers (vice chancellors and rectors of universities, directors of research labs, and heads of funding agencies, to obtain a lot of information they need to mange their institutions efficiently. Besides, authors are not restricted in choosing journals to publish their work.