Self-Selected or Mandated, Open Access Increases Citation Impact for Higher Quality Research
Figure 1
Open Access (OA) Self-Archiving Percentages for Institutions With Self-Archiving Mandates Compared to Non-Mandated, Self-Selected Controls.
As estimated from the portion of their yearly published article output that is indexed by Thomson-Reuters, in this 2006 sample at least 60% of each of the four mandated institutions' total yearly article output was self-archived and hence made OA, as mandated. The corresponding percentage OA among the control articles published in the same journal/year (but originating from other, presumably nonmandated institutions) was 15%, or close to the frequently reported global spontaneous baseline rate of about 15–20% for self-selected (nonmandated) self-archiving [19]. In other words, about 15% of these papers were self-selectively self-archived when it was not mandated, whereas at least 60% were self-archived when it was mandated.