Does the arXiv lead to higher citations and reduced publisher downloads?

[Phil Davis <pmd8@cornell.edu>]

Liblicense, While our study confirms the same citation advantage 
reported by others, it does not attribute Open Access as the 
cause of more citations, but to Self-Selection. Open Access 
therefore may be a result, not a cause, of authors promoting 
higher-quality work.

*****

Does the arXiv lead to higher citations and reduced publisher downloads for
mathematics articles?
Authors: Philip M. Davis, Michael J. Fromerth
Date: March 14, 2006
http://arxiv.org/abs/cs.DL/0603056

An analysis of 2,765 articles published in four math journals 
from 1997-2005 indicated that articles deposited in the arXiv 
received 35% more citations on average than non-deposited 
articles (an advantage of about 1.1 citations per article), and 
this difference was most pronounced for highly-cited articles. 
The most plausible explanation was not the Open Access or Early 
View postulates, but Self-Selection, which has led to higher 
quality articles being deposited in the arXiv. Yet in spite of 
their citation advantage, arXiv-deposited articles received 23% 
fewer downloads from the publisher's website (about 10 fewer 
downloads per article) in all but the most recent two years after 
publication. The data suggest that arXiv and the publisher's 
website may be fulfilling distinct functional needs of the 
reader.

Philip Davis, Life Sciences Librarian
Mann Library, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853
(607) 255-7192 ;  (607) 255-0318 fax
pmd8@cornell.edu
http://people.cornell.edu/pages/pmd8/