The Impact Factor of journals converting from subscription to open access - BioMed Central blog

"January’s piece about the Impact Factor trend of established journals that had joined BioMed Central’s portfolio of open access publications generated considerable interest. We asked whether there was an open access citation effect to observe, and whether the findings had implications for an editorial strategy? The answer we found was ‘yes’ to both questions. We are now reporting additional data, and gradually the picture is becoming more fine grained. It shows the extent and the sustainability of the Impact Factor gains of such journals after their conversion to open access. This short report outlines how the story continued for the five journals we discussed in January, and now they are joined by one further title, Veterinary Research, which for years has been the highest-ranked journal in veterinary science. To the graphs below we have also added the trend for the median Impact Factor in the relevant subject category, as available from Thomson Reuter’s Web of Science, thereby providing a benchmark or ‘control group’ ..."