Identifying Open Access Articles: Valid and Invalid Methods

Goodman, David and Antelman, Kristin and Bakkalbasi, Nisa (2005) Identifying Open Access Articles: Valid and Invalid Methods. In Proceedings Charleston Conference: Issues in Book and Serial Acquisition, Charleston, SC.

Abstract

Many versions of an article are now visible on the web, including not only open access (OA), but also paid access, preliminary versions, abstracts, and mere references or citations. The purpose of OA requires not only that the article can be read without the barrier of payment, but also that the reader can find the article to be read without the barrier of extensive searching. We will demonstrate the dubious validity of one prominent system for identifying OA and measuring the amount of OA and the OA Advantage. We will then briefly discuss the remaining alternatives.