New Preprint: Preprints as Accelerator of Scholarly Communication: An Empirical Analysis in Mathematics
The paper (preprint version) linked below was recently posted on arXiv.
Title
Preprints as Accelerator of Scholarly Communication: An Empirical Analysis in Mathematics
Authors
Zhiqi Wang
Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China
KU Leuven, Belgium
Yue Chen
Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China
Wolfgang Glänzel
Hungarian Academy of Sciences
Source
via arXiv
Note: “This is the preprint version submitted to journal. The paper has been published in Journal of Informetrics.”
Direct to Final Published Journal Version
Abstract
In this study we analyse the key driving factors of preprints in enhancing scholarly communication. To this end we use four groups of metrics, one referring to scholarly communication and based on bibliometric indicators (Web of Science and Scopus citations), while the others reflect usage (usage counts in Web of Science), capture (Mendeley readers) and social media attention (Tweets). Hereby we measure two effects associated with preprint publishing: publication delay and impact. We define and use several indicators to assess the impact of journal articles with previous preprint versions in arXiv.
In particular, the indicators measure several times characterizing the process of arXiv preprints publishing and the reviewing process of the journal versions, and the ageing patterns of citations to preprints. In addition, we compare the observed patterns between preprints and non-OA articles without any previous preprint versions in arXiv. We could observe that the “early-view” and “open-access” effects of preprints contribute to a measurable citation and readership advantage of preprints. Articles with preprint versions are more likely to be mentioned in social media and have shorter Altmetric attention delay. Usage and capture prove to have only moderate but stronger correlation with citations than Tweets. The different slopes of the regression lines between the different indicators reflect different order of magnitude of usage, capture and citation data.
Direct to Full Text Article (Preprint Version)
25 pages; PDF.
Filed under: Data Files, Journal Articles, News, Open Access, Publishing
About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.