LiU research spreads faster via the web

Publishing your research results on the web increases citations and propagation of the results - it has been scientifically proven.  The number of open access articles is also steadily climbing. “If you don’t publish on the internet you are losing out in a big way,” according to David Lawrence head of LiU Electronic Press.

Professor of Computer Science and visionary Erik Sandewall started Linköping University Electronic Press back in 1996, making LiU a pioneer in electronic publishing.  More than 2,400 articles published by LiU researchers in recognised scientific journals are today openly available on the LiU website.

“We have well over twice as many articles openly available as any other Swedish university,” says David Lawrence, head of LIU Electronic Press.

In absolute figures Lund University is at the top of the league, but seen as a percentage of total published articles, LiU lies far ahead. Lund has around 16% of their articles openly available, while the figure for LIU is 23-24%; the number is steadily increasing. These figures are taken from the academic search service SwePub.

Such accessibility has proven to be beneficial. The articles published in parallel are cited on average 1.4 times the world average, while LiU articles in general are cited 1.06 times the world average.

As recently as June this year, David Lawrence and Ingegerd Baurén went through the results from the Swedish Research Council annual review, which forms the basis for the allocation of research funds. They discovered that LiU’s bibliometric index is increasing; our share of the total number Swedish publications is increasing and citations are increasing.

No one knows if this is due to the increasing availability of LiU researchers' articles, but the global trend is clear. According to one international assessment, around 20% of all scientific articles published today in high ranking journals have open access, and that percentage is increasing steadily. Here in Sweden, this development is also being driven by research financiers such as the Swedish Research Council, Formas and Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, who want to see the results openly available.

The major publishing houses such as Springer, Wiley and some of the new ones such as BMC, Hindawi and others have of course discovered the trend and have not been slow to find new business models.  The big companies, which finance publications via subscriptions, often offer a hybrid form of open access where the researcher can pay between SEK 25,000 and 30,000 (EUR 3,000–3,500) for the article to be freely available in the journal for reading and citation (which would otherwise only be accessible to those who subscribe).

“It’s an expensive option relative to what you get, and something to be avoided if there is any other possibility. But there may be times when you want to see an article in one of Taylor and Francis’ journals, for example; if the research is financed by the Research Council, you have no option but to pay,” Lawrence explains.

Some Swedish universities, with Lund at their head, have realised the importance of open publishing and have set up a special fund where researchers get their extra costs covered.

One possibility is also that the university takes out an annual membership with BMC (BioMed Central), for example, and pays an annual amount to have the university's articles published with open access.

“We have suggested that a fund be set up at Linköping University and have so far received positive reactions from the advisory council. No decision has been made, but the quicker it happens the bigger the competitive advantage we get,” Lawrence says.

The idea that open access renders more citations and greater propagation was put forward by James A Evans and Jacob Reimer, researchers at Chicago University, back in 2009 in an article in the journal Science. No one has been able to say precisely how much wider propagation the research results achieve, but Lawrence reckons that it can give at least ten times greater propagation when the article is no longer totally dependent on the journal’s brand and distribution channels.

“Of course open access doesn’t make anyone a better researcher but if you don’t publish on the internet you are losing out in a big way,” he states.

Spread the results quickly

• Double publish on Electronic press as quickly as possible. The editorial staff will be glad to help; send in your files.
• The title is searchable on Google. Spend some time on the title so that it says what the whole article is about.
• The abstract that follows will receive about 10 to 15 seconds of attention before the reader decides whether or not to download a PDF. Put in the work on this.
• It is a good idea to include a picture that will capture the reader’s attention.
• Ask the journal what they will do to highlight the article - view it as a public service, especially if you are paying for open access.
• It s a good idea to spread the results on Facebook, Wikipedia and other social media.
• Work with other universities.

Cooperation also brings more citations.

A brand new report from Nordforsk shows that articles with at least one author from a different university will be cited up to 50% more than if all the authors come from the same university. The same studies also show that at the most research intensive universities between 31–37% of publications have come to light via international cooperation.
In this LiU comes out much better: in 2011, almost 30% of the publications included international cooperation, which is an increase from 25% the previous year.

Related links:

Open Access and Global Participation in Science: James A. Evans and Jacob Reimer, Science 20 February 2009
LiU Electronic Press

Text: Monica Westman Svenselius.
Photo: Peter Modin
from LiU magazine No. 3, 2012.