Open Access and citation count: a CSIR case study

Abstract

Open Access (OA) refers to electronic scholarly articles, books, monographs and other grey literature that is freely available. Various electronic platforms limit access to their content due to subscription costs, firewalls, and other access restrictions such as membership of an association. Publishing in these"closed" platforms tend to limit the exposure researchers will gain, as opposed to publishing on Open Access platforms. A number of studies carried out on the effect of Open Access publishing on citations to articles has shown a significant increase in citation count. This paper will indicate the advantages of publishing in Open Access platforms and will highlight some perspectives from CSIR researchers in this regard.