Access to Top-Cited Emergency Care Articles (Published Between 2012 and 2016) Without Subscription

Abstract

Introduction: Unrestricted access to journal publications speeds research progress, productivity, and knowledge translation, which in turn develops and promotes the efficient dissemination of content. We describe access to the 500 most-cited emergency medicine (EM) articles (published between 2012 and 2016) in terms of publisher-based access (open access or subscription), alternate access routes (self-archived or author provided), and relative cost of access. Methods: We used the Scopus database to identify the 500 most-cited EM articles published between 2012 and 2016. Access status was collected from the journal publisher. For studies not available via open access, we searched on Google, Google Scholar, Researchgate, Academia.edu, and the Unpaywall and Open Access Button browser plugins to locate selfarchived copies. We contacted corresponding authors of the remaining inaccessible studies for a copy of each of their articles. We collected article processing and access costs from the journal publishers, and then calculated relative cost differences using the World Bank purchasing power parity index for the United States (U.S.), Germany, Turkey, China, Brazil, South Africa, and Australia. This allows costs to be understood relative to the economic context of the countries from which they originated. Results: We identified 500 articles for inclusion in the study. Of these, 167 (33%) were published in an open access format. Of the remaining 333 (67%), 204 (61%) were available elsewhere on the internet, 18 (4%) were provided by the authors, and 111 (22%) were accessible by subscription only. The mean article processing and access charges were $2,518.62 and $44.78, respectively. These costs were 2.24, 1.75, 2.28 and 1.56 times more expensive for South African, Chinese, Turkish, and Brazilian authors, respectively, than for U.S. authors (p<0.001 all). Conclusion: Despite the advantage of open access publication for knowledge translation, social responsibility, and increased citation, one in five of the 500 EM articles were accessible only via subscription. Access for scientists from upper-middle income countries was significantly hampered by cost. It is important to acknowledge the value this has for authors from low-and middle-income countries. Authors should also consider the citation advantage afforded by open access publishing when deciding where to publish. [West J Emerg Med. 2019;20(3)460-465.]

What happens to global health research: analysis of the full‐length publication rates of research abstracts presented at two major global health conferences

“…For example, of the 500 most cited emergency medicine articles from 2012 to 2016 a similar percentage of articles were available via open access (33%) as from the CUGH and GHIC full‐length publications. However, 22% of this research was only accessible via subscription with an average cost of $44.78 to access, again disparately burdening practitioners from non‐Western countries when adjusting for purchasing power parity index (Al Hamzy et al, 2019). Improving the affordable accessibility of the myriad global health resources will be critical to ensure that publication of research results in improved access to research.…”

Open(ing) Access: Top Health Publication Availability to Researchers in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

“…Unfortunately, LMIC researchers and research institutions face numerous barriers from the standpoint of authorship and readership [6]. For example, between 2012 and 2016, only one third of the global top 500 cited emergency medicine articles were freely accessible [7,8].…”