Re: Open access and impact factor

[jcg <jean.claude.guedon@umontreal.ca>]

Open access can easily involve peer review and do so in a completely
unambiguous way, so let us leave this issue side for the sake of this
discussion.

One can compare the impact of both toll-gated and open access (peer
reviewed)  publications if one looks at how these publications are cited
in peer-reviewed publishing systems, be they toll-gated or open-access.

The fact that open access documents can be accessed by anyone would be
meaningful only if we judged value through hits or downloads. Such
criteria have been and are being used, but like impact factors, they must
be used carefully.

Best,

Jean-Claude Gu�don

On March 10, 2004 03:26 pm, Harriet Schick wrote:

> Hello - I basically lurk and read the posts -- however your argument seems
> right on target to me...and basic.  If the value of peer review and impact
> are quality and a measure of citation analysis, how can you compare 2
> items that discuss the same topic one freely accessible (and possibly not
> peer reviewed)  --- that can be hit by anyone, with one that is being
> accessed by the community intended, and thus more likely to have an
> "impact?"
>
> Harriet Schick, MSLS, AHIP
> Hschick@engenderhealth.org