Going for Gold: Reach and Impact | Open science

Going for gold: exploring the reach and impact of gold open access articles in hybrid journals

In 2021, Springer Nature commissioned an analysis of 60,567 articles published in 1,262 of its hybrid journals, measuring reach by the number of downloads and the attention reflected in the Altmetric Attention Score, and impact through the number of citations.

This white paper presents the findings from that analysis, which show a clear advantage in reach and impact for articles published open access (OA) in hybrid journals compared to non-OA articles in the same journals, and for the first time also an advantage for full (Gold) OA articles compared to subscription articles where an earlier article version (such as an accepted manuscript or preprint) has been self-archived in an OA repository.

"It’s critical that we continue to invest in a Gold OA future, and continue to invest in enabling authors to select Gold OA in the journals of their choice."

- Steven Inchcoombe, Chief Publishing and Solutions Officer

Learn more about the white paper

For Springer Nature authors who have selected the full Gold OA publishing option, there is clear evidence that their work has benefited from increased attention and reach:

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Exploring the reach & impact of Gold open access

Articles published via the Gold OA route, on average, achieve greater reach and impact, compared to subscription articles with earlier versions available (e.g. a Green OA accepted manuscript), and to non-OA articles
There is no significant corresponding ‘Green OA effect’; the availability of a ‘Green’ version is not sufficient to match the benefits of Gold OA given that the Version of Record of the article it is attached to remains behind a paywall.

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Hybrid usage per discipline

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Assessing the open access effect for hybrid journals

The white paper examines the relationship between OA and impact, demonstrating the value hybrid journals bring to researchers, funders, institutions, and society more broadly.

Exploring researcher preference for the version of record

The white paper provides evidence of the value of the version of record (VOR) and immediate gold open access, bringing together both analysis of VOR usage, and feedback from readers and authors via an online questionnaire.

Open for all: exploring the reach of open access content to non-academic audiences

The white paper explores how research content is being used outside of academia. Our results show a strong open access advantage, with a high volume of readers from non-academic communities.