Different open access routes, varying societal impacts: evidence from the Royal Society biological journals

Liwei Zhang () and Liang Ma ()
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Liwei Zhang: Shandong University
Liang Ma: Renmin University of China

Scientometrics, 2024, vol. 129, issue 6, No 21, 3407-3431

Abstract: Abstract Compared to academic impacts (e.g., the citation advancement) brought by Open Access (OA), societal impacts of scientific studies have not been well elaborated in prior studies. In this article, we explore different OA routes (i.e., gold OA, hybrid OA, and bronze OA) and their varying effects on multiple types of societal impacts (i.e., social media and web) by using the case of four biological journals founded by the Royal Society. The results show that (1) gold OA is significantly and positively related to social media indicators (Twitter counts and Facebook counts), but significantly and negatively associated with web indicators (Blog counts and News counts); (2) hybrid OA has a significant and positive effect on both social media and web indicators; and (3) bronze OA is significantly and positively associated with social media indicators, but it turns to be negative albeit nonsignificant for web indicators. The findings suggest that OA policies could increase the societal impact on the public by varying degrees. Specifically, OA policies could amplify the societal impacts of research articles on social media, but the effects are inconsistent for societal impacts on the web.

Keywords: Societal impacts; Gold OA; Hybrid OA; Bronze OA; Web effects; Social media effects (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1007/s11192-024-05032-0

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