Citation and economic impact of Citation and economic impact of open access publishing: open access publishing: 

Examples from the developing worldExamples from the developing world

D. K. Sahu, MD (Peds)D. K. Sahu, MD (Peds)Managing Director, Medknow Publications Pvt LtdManaging Director, Medknow Publications Pvt Ltd

Editor, Indian Journal of Medical SciencesEditor, Indian Journal of Medical SciencesExecutive Editor, Neurology IndiaExecutive Editor, Neurology India

Managing Editor, Journal of Postgraduate MedicineManaging Editor, Journal of Postgraduate Medicine

Journals from DC are important

• Flow of knowledge– South to North

• “International” journals are not international– Content / Readers / Editorial board

• Local importance– Local knowledge / local evidence– Policy making

Limited visibility = lost impactLimited circulation

Poor visibility and readership

Limited recognitionFewer citations

Fewer authors and subscriptions

Circle oflimited

accessibility

Fee-less immediate free access

Medknow’s Publishing model

• Online submission and review system– Saves time and resources

• Immediate free access– Increases visibility

– Attracts authors and citations

• Sources of revenue– Print subscriptions

– Advertisements – print and online

– Membership fee

– Reprints 

• No author / author institution fee

The OA impact

• Visibility

• Journals’ performances

• On subscriptions and economics

• Research Impact

Visibility

Journals’ performances

Impact on article submissions

More international submissions

Other impacts

• International recognition– 13 journals in SCI in 2 years

• More articles per issue– 40 articles in 2005 vs. 160+ articles in 2008 in IJU

– Higher no. of original research papers• More issues per year– Increase in frequency for 6 journals

• Regularity of publication– 9 journals published ahead of schedule

The economics and subscriptions

Are we losing print subscriptions?

Additional revenue

Research Impact

Is it due to OA?

• 558 authors who cited articles• 68% from PubMed, 10% from web• 63% used an OA source for full text• If not OA– 35% would not have quoted article– 26% would have quoted on basis of abstract – <5% would pay for access

Conclusions

• For a journal, open access– helps to improve visibility 

– helps to attract authors– helps to improve quality

– helps to increase research impact

– does not affect subscriptions

Thank you

www.medknow.com dksahu@medknow.com