The state and evolution of Gold open access: a country and discipline level analysis
Aslib Journal of Information Management
ISSN: 2050-3806
Article publication date: 5 September 2018
Issue publication date: 11 October 2018
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the evolution of Gold open access (OA) rates in different countries and disciplines, as well as explore the influencing factors.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, employing the OA filter option of Web of Science (WoS), the authors perform a large-scale evaluation of the OA state of countries and disciplines from 1990 to 2016. Particularly, the authors consider not only the absolute number of Gold OA literature but also the ratio of them among all literature.
Findings
Currently, one-quarter of the WoS articles is Gold OA articles. Brazil is the most active country in OA publishing, while Russia, India and China have the lowest OA ratios. The OA percentage of Brazil has been decreasing dramatically in recent years, while the OA percentages of China, UK and the Netherlands have been increasing. There also exist huge differences of OA percentages across different subject categories. The percentages of OA articles in biology, life, and health-related areas are high, while those in physics and chemistry-related subject categories are very low.
Originality/value
With the availability of large-scale data from WoS, this study conducts a comprehensive evaluation of the Gold OA state of major countries for the first time. The variation of OA percentages is considered in light of the research profiles. OA policies in different countries and funding organizations also have an influence on the OA development.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the “National Natural Science Foundation of China” (71673038, 71503031) and the project of “Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities” (DUT18JC32).
Citation
Wang, X., Cui, Y., Xu, S. and Hu, Z. (2018), "The state and evolution of Gold open access: a country and discipline level analysis", Aslib Journal of Information Management, Vol. 70 No. 5, pp. 573-584. https://doi.org/10.1108/AJIM-02-2018-0023
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited