Open access papers are cited more frequently than subscription-based articles, according to a study published this week in PLoS Biology, an open access journal. However, these findings alone may not persuade more authors to consider open access publishing, experts said.This report "tends to confirm what many people suspected would be the case," said Kenneth R. Fulton, executive director of the National Academy of Science and publisher of Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. But how widely applicable these findings are, and whether they will induce authors to consider open access publishing is unknown, he added. For instance, a survey released last week by the Publishing Research Consortium suggests that access to articles is not a major problem for researchers. Specifically, the survey found that scientists ranked greater access to the literature 12th out of 16 on a list of possible ways to improve research productivity.Previous research...

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