New Library World Emerald Article: Citation impact of Open Access journals Nana Turk Article information: To cite this document: Nana Turk, (2008),"Citation impact of Open Access journals", New Library World, Vol. 109 Iss: 1 pp. 65 - 74 Permanent link to this document: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/03074800810846010 Downloaded on: 05-04-2012 References: This document contains references to 37 other documents To copy this document: permissions@emeraldinsight.com This document has been downloaded 2034 times. Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided by UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN For Authors: If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service. Information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Additional help for authors is available for Emerald subscribers. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.com With over forty years' experience, Emerald Group Publishing is a leading independent publisher of global research with impact in business, society, public policy and education. In total, Emerald publishes over 275 journals and more than 130 book series, as well as an extensive range of online products and services. Emerald is both COUNTER 3 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. *Related content and download information correct at time of download.

Citation impact of Open Access journals Nana Turk University of Ljubljana, Central Medical Library, Ljubljana, Slovenia Abstract Purpose ��� This literature review aims to provide a synthesis of available key information about the citation impact of Open Access journals in LIS and science in general. Citation impact is defined as a surrogate measure of citation counts. Design/methodology/approach ��� Based on a literature review, this paper discusses the methodology of the data collections for citation counts. The literature review is structured to address the literature about citation impact of Open Access journals. Findings ��� The literature review indicates that there is quite a uniform way about methodology of citation counts and substantial research about motivation for URL citations to LIS articles. Originality/value ��� This literature review is a comprehensive study of the main research about citation impact of Open Access journals, focused on LIS journals. Keywords Worldwide web, Electronic publishing, Information science, Academic staff, Reference services Paper type Literature review Introduction It is generally assumed that most scholars typically select journal articles, monographs and conference papers as their references. Indeed, this was the pattern found in the printed resources cited in the articles studied in this citation analysis. The development of the internet has increased their ability to find and use sources that previously would have been unavailable. Researchers who have skills of searching the internet can now easily access working papers, unpublished reports and other grey literature, that previously would have been inaccessible (Davis Herring, 2002, pp. 338-340). Scholars want to be able to have free access to several types of sources. The modern phenomenon relating to free online access to digital information is Open Access. The publishing policies of Open Access improve the impact of scholarly literature because scholars publish their scientific articles without the expectation of payment. The Budapest Open Access Initiative from 2002 and Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities, dated 2003, were the first which included a definition, information and the statements of Open Access phenomenon. It was decided that there were two roads to Open Access: (1) Open Access journals ��� the golden road to Open Access. The articles from the selected journals are openly accessible immediately. These journals will not charge subscriptions or access fees. Part of the motivation for authors to make their articles accessible through Open Access journals was a research or citation impact. The examples of Open Access journals include the Thompson-Scientific ranked journals, the Journal of the Medical Library Association and Information Research (Coleman and Roback, 2005). The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/0307-4803.htm Citation impact of Open Access journals 65 Received 21 June 2007 Reviewed 13 August 2007 New Library World Vol. 109 No. 1/2, 2008 pp. 65-74 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 0307-4803 DOI 10.1108/03074800810846010