From: Mark J McCabe <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thu, 30 May 2013 18:06:07 +0200

Hi Folks:

Chris Snyder and I have just completed our first empirical analysis of
Open Access, as opposed to online access in general (using data from
100 Science Journals).  The results are new to this literature, and
should generate a fair amount of discussion regarding their
implications (which we have not yet begun to formally assess).  We
would appreciate your feedback too.  :-)

Regards, Mark McCabe

The paper is available on SSRN -- at
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2269040

The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Poorer:  The Effect of Open
Access on Cites to Science Journals Across the Quality Spectrum

Abstract:

An open-access journal allows free online access to its articles,
obtaining revenue from fees charged to submitting authors. Using panel
data on science journals, we are able to circumvent some problems
plaguing previous studies of the impact of open access on citations.
We find that moving from paid to open access increases cites by 8% on
average in our sample, but the effect varies across the quality of
content. Open access increases cites to the best content (top-ranked
journals or articles in upper quintiles of citations within a volume)
but reduces cites to lower-quality content. We construct a model to
explain these findings in which being placed on a broad open-access
platform can increase the competition among articles for readers’
attention. We can find structural parameters allowing the model to fit
the quintile results quite closely.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 39

Keywords: open access, superstars, long tail, journal, citation,
search, platform

JEL Classification: L17, O33