Open Access Journals

A new study published by Gunther Eysenbach of the University of Toronto entitled "Citation Advantage of Open Access Journals," http://biology.plosjournals.org/archive/1545-7885/4/5/pdf/10.1371_journal.pbio.0040157-L.pdf
demonstrates that research published in open access scientific journals is more likely to be cited soon after publication than articles published in traditional journals. According to the abstract, "...even in a journal that is widely available in research libraries, OA articles are more immediately recognized and cited by peers than non-OA articles published in the same journal. OA is likely to benefit science by accelerating dissemination and uptake of research findings." This seems very logical, and it would be interesting to see if the same results would be obtained in a study of open access social science journals.