A review of open access clinical trials published in leading hybrid journals n

Objective: Many of the top-ranked journals in Thomson Reuters’ Journal Citation Reports ® (JCR) are specialty titles that offer an option to publish clinical trial studies (CTs) in open access (OA) format. Given the increase in OA content across STM publishing, we reviewed characteristics of OA CTs published in these journals within six therapeutic areas to determine whether and how this option is being adopted as a means of publishing CTs. Research Design: We used the JCR to identify the top five journals ranked by Impact Factor and offering an OA option in oncology, cardiology, gastroenterology, psychiatry, dermatology, and rheumatology. Journals that do not generally publish CTs were excluded. We used PubMed to identify CTs published in 2013, and Web of Science™ for citation data. Results: The most OA CTs were published in rheumatology (20.8% of CTs). The fewest OA CTs were published in dermatology (2.7%). Industry sponsored the plurality of OA CTs in all areas except oncology and psychiatry. The type of Creative Commons license used was inconsistent across therapeutic areas, though the use of the CC BY license was comparatively rare. The average number of citations for OA CTs was often higher than the journal’s 2013 Immediacy Index. Conclusion: Characteristics of OA CTs published in leading hybrid journals vary by therapeutic area and by journal within each area— sometimes significantly. As OA publishing continues to grow within STM, new trends may emerge within this group of journals and within these therapeutic areas.