Gold Route Open Access Journals in Engineering and Technology: Analysis of Research Impact and Implications for Scholarly Communication

Abstract The study examined the research impact of gold open access (OA) journals in engineering and technology. A total of 37 gold route journals that request article processing charges (APC) and 66 other OA journals without APC in the field were found in the Directory of Open Access Journals (...

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Main Author: Ifeanyi Jonas Ezema
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of Alberta Library 2021-01-01
Series:Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship
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Online Access:https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/istl/index.php/istl/article/view/43
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author Ifeanyi Jonas Ezema
author_facet Ifeanyi Jonas Ezema
author_sort Ifeanyi Jonas Ezema
collection DOAJ
description Abstract The study examined the research impact of gold open access (OA) journals in engineering and technology. A total of 37 gold route journals that request article processing charges (APC) and 66 other OA journals without APC in the field were found in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and used for the study. The publishers, APC charges and the year each journal was added to DOAJ were identified and included in this study  An informetric approach was used to extract research impact indicators (citations, paper productivity, cite/paper, cite/journal and h-index) of journals. Findings revealed that the publishers of the APC journals were dominated by commercial publishing companies producing over 60% of the journals. Article processing charges ranged from 7.6 USD to 3471.5 USD while the average article processing charges for APC journals was 727 USD. Gold route open access (APC) journals performed better than open access non-APC OA journals since they produced 51.2% of the papers, 71.8% of the total citations and 65.1% of the total h-index. However, findings showed a weak positive correlation between articles processing charges (APC) of the gold route journals and their research impact; while there is high significant positive correlation between research impact of gold route (APC journals) and non-APC open access journals.
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spelling doaj-art-96a5d5f80359491aaeb21de1d1beb8aa2025-08-20T03:32:16ZengUniversity of Alberta LibraryIssues in Science and Technology Librarianship1092-12062021-01-019610.29173/istl43Gold Route Open Access Journals in Engineering and Technology: Analysis of Research Impact and Implications for Scholarly CommunicationIfeanyi Jonas Ezema0University of Nigeria, Nsukka Abstract The study examined the research impact of gold open access (OA) journals in engineering and technology. A total of 37 gold route journals that request article processing charges (APC) and 66 other OA journals without APC in the field were found in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and used for the study. The publishers, APC charges and the year each journal was added to DOAJ were identified and included in this study  An informetric approach was used to extract research impact indicators (citations, paper productivity, cite/paper, cite/journal and h-index) of journals. Findings revealed that the publishers of the APC journals were dominated by commercial publishing companies producing over 60% of the journals. Article processing charges ranged from 7.6 USD to 3471.5 USD while the average article processing charges for APC journals was 727 USD. Gold route open access (APC) journals performed better than open access non-APC OA journals since they produced 51.2% of the papers, 71.8% of the total citations and 65.1% of the total h-index. However, findings showed a weak positive correlation between articles processing charges (APC) of the gold route journals and their research impact; while there is high significant positive correlation between research impact of gold route (APC journals) and non-APC open access journals. https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/istl/index.php/istl/article/view/43Bibliometrics; Scholarly communication; Journal publishing; Open access; Engineering research; Scientometrics; Article processing charges (APC)
spellingShingle Ifeanyi Jonas Ezema
Gold Route Open Access Journals in Engineering and Technology: Analysis of Research Impact and Implications for Scholarly Communication
Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship
Bibliometrics; Scholarly communication; Journal publishing; Open access; Engineering research; Scientometrics; Article processing charges (APC)
title Gold Route Open Access Journals in Engineering and Technology: Analysis of Research Impact and Implications for Scholarly Communication
title_full Gold Route Open Access Journals in Engineering and Technology: Analysis of Research Impact and Implications for Scholarly Communication
title_fullStr Gold Route Open Access Journals in Engineering and Technology: Analysis of Research Impact and Implications for Scholarly Communication
title_full_unstemmed Gold Route Open Access Journals in Engineering and Technology: Analysis of Research Impact and Implications for Scholarly Communication
title_short Gold Route Open Access Journals in Engineering and Technology: Analysis of Research Impact and Implications for Scholarly Communication
title_sort gold route open access journals in engineering and technology analysis of research impact and implications for scholarly communication
topic Bibliometrics; Scholarly communication; Journal publishing; Open access; Engineering research; Scientometrics; Article processing charges (APC)
url https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/istl/index.php/istl/article/view/43
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