Differences in Openness and Sharing of Scientific Papers at the University of Rijeka

Abstract

Aim: to determine differences in openness and sharing of scientific papers.

Methods: We have analysed scientific papers from the Croatian Scientific Bibliography (CROSBI) from University of Rijeka (Croatia) in 4 fields (2017–2019) on a sample of 210 papers. The SciMago Journal Rank (SJR) quartiles were used as a metric. We have checked the presence of the full text in open access in 3 types of repositories (Repository UNIRI-Dabar; ArXiv; CROSBI) and on social academic network ResearchGate. Tendency of self-archiving and sharing with regard to the field of science was investigated.

Results: Scientists in the field of natural sciences (N=55; 78.6%); and biomedicine and health (N = 49; 70%) publish more (P <0.001) in Q1 and Q2 journals. Social sciences and humanities authors publish mostly in Q3 and Q4 journals and in journals not indexed in the Scopus database (N =57; 81.4%). The proportion of open access papers (N=107; 51%) is equal to closed papers (N=103; 49%) (P=0;7825). Scientists used ResearchGate platform (N=77); ArXiv (N=32); UNIRI Repository (N=15) and CROSBI (N=9) for the self-archiving and sharing of papers. High degree of tendency for self-archiving and sharing was observed in the field of natural sciences (N=21; 60%).

Conclusion: The highest degree of tendency for self-archiving and sharing is shown by natural scientists. There was no correlation between SJR quartile and the author's tendency to self-archive or share his work on an open platform.