Citation advantage for open access articles in European Radiology

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether there is a difference in citation rate between open access and subscription access articles in the field of radiology. METHODS: This study included consecutive original articles published online in European Radiology. Pearson χ(2), Fisher’s exact, and Mann-Whitney U tests were used to assess for any differences between open access and subscription access articles. Linear regression analysis was performed to determine the association between open access publishing and citation rate, adjusted for continent of origin, subspeciality, study findings in article title, number of authors, number of references, length of the article, and number of days the article has been online. In a secondary analysis, we determined the association between open access and number of downloads and shares. RESULTS: A total of 500 original studies, of which 86 (17.2%) were open access and 414 (82.8%) were subscription access articles, were included. Articles from Europe or North America were significantly more frequently published open access (p = 0.024 and p = 0.001), while articles with corresponding authors from Asia were significantly less frequently published open access (p < 0.001). In adjusted linear regression analysis, open access articles were significantly more frequently cited (beta coefficient = 3.588, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.668 to 6.508, p = 0.016), downloaded (beta coefficient = 759.801, 95% CI 630.917 to 888.685, p < 0.001), and shared (beta coefficient = 0.748, 95% CI 0.124 to 1.372, p = 0.019) than subscription access articles (beta coefficient = 3.94, 95% confidence interval 1.44 to 6.44, p = 0.002). CONCLUSION: Open access publishing is independently associated with an increased citation, download, and share rate in the field of radiology. KEY POINTS: • A minority of articles are currently published open access in European Radiology. • European and North American authors tend to publish more open access articles than Asian authors. • Open access publishing seems to offer an independent advantage in terms of citation, download, and share rate.