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Citing and Reading Behaviours in High-Energy Physics. How a Community Stopped Worrying about Journals and Learned to Love Repositories
Anne Gentil-Beccot, Salvatore Mele, Travis Brooks
TL;DR
The paper asks whether repository dissemination and Open Access journals confer advantages, and whether HEP scientists read journals or repositories. It analyzes SPIRES metadata and citation data, finding a large citation advantage for arXiv-submitted articles alongside no discernible gold Open Access advantage and greater preprint downloading.
Problem
Evidence about scholars’ reading and citing behaviours is sometimes scant, while repository dissemination, Open Access journals, and journal-versus-repository use remain central scholarly communication questions.
Source: §1 · p. 2Method
The paper analyzes SPIRES metadata and citations across HEP preprints and journal articles, treating preprint and published versions as one entity.
Source: §2 · pp. 3–4Results
5 times more citations go to articles submitted to arXiv than articles not submitted; 20% of HEP citations over two years occur before publication, gold Open Access shows no discernible advantage, and preprints are downloaded four to eight times more often than journal versions.
Source: §7 · p. 10Takeaways & Limitations
In HEP, free and immediate circulation of ideas is associated with faster scientific discourse, while peer-reviewed journals retain an independent accreditation role.
Source: §7 · pp. 10–11The analysis does not ascertain the historical and sociological effects that may explain the citation patterns.
Source: §2 · p. 5
Abstract
from arXiv · showhide
Contemporary scholarly discourse follows many alternative routes in addition to the three-century old tradition of publication in peer-reviewed journals. The field of High- Energy Physics (HEP) has explored alternative communication strategies for decades, initially via the mass mailing of paper copies of preliminary manuscripts, then via the inception of the first online repositories and digital libraries. This field is uniquely placed to answer recurrent questions raised by the current trends in scholarly communication: is there an advantage for scientists to make their work available through repositories, often in preliminary form? Is there an advantage to publishing in Open Access journals? Do scientists still read journals or do they use digital repositories? The analysis of citation data demonstrates that free and immediate online dissemination of preprints creates an immense citation advantage in HEP, whereas publication in Open Access journals presents no discernible advantage. In addition, the analysis of clickstreams in the leading digital library of the field shows that HEP scientists seldom read journals, preferring preprints instead.
1. Introduction
Electronic journals and free online resources have reshaped scholarly communication, but evidence about scholars’ reading and citing behaviours remains limited. HEP’s long history of preprint exchange and repository use provides a setting to examine the advantages of repository dissemination, Open Access journals, and journals versus repositories as reading sources.
1. Introduction
- Recent electronic journals and free online resources have widened access and enabled manuscript circulation before, alongside, or after publication.These changes have prompted debate among librarians, policy makers, publishers, and scientists.Source: §1 · pp. 1–2
- HEP’s preprint-sharing tradition predates arXiv, with laboratory indexing leading to SPIRES and arXiv’s 1991 launch as an internet-based repository.SPIRES also recorded publication information for preprints.Source: §1 · p. 2
- Evidence about scholars’ reading and citing behaviours is sometimes scant, and HEP offers a setting to examine repository, Open Access journal, and journal-versus-repository use questions.The paper asks whether repository availability or Open Access journal publication offers an advantage, and whether scientists read journals or repositories.Source: §1 · p. 2
- “Green” Open Access means free online availability in a repository, while “gold” Open Access means free availability on a scientific journal’s website.In HEP, repository submission is an author’s choice rather than a university or funder mandate.Source: §1 · p. 2
2. Methodology and Background
The study uses SPIRES metadata and citation records to analyze HEP preprints and journal articles, treating preprint and published versions as one entity. Its comparison finds a fivefold Impact Factor advantage in 2008 for articles both published and available on arXiv, while noting that historical and sociological explanations require further analysis.
2. Methodology and Background
- SPIRES covers published and preprint HEP literature from 1974 onward, with over 750,000 records and citation, keyword, classification, and author-affiliation metadata.Its records are compiled from sources including arXiv, peer-reviewed journals, conference websites, and selected institutional repositories.Source: §2 · p. 3
- SPIRES aggregates citations to preprints and published versions as one entity, reflecting HEP’s heavy reliance on preprint communication.The study limits its scope to HEP-relevant content, creating a closed environment for analyzing the field’s citing behaviour.Source: §2 · p. 3
- ArXiv held 90–100% of articles published in main HEP journals for over a decade; nearly 90% of practitioners relied primarily on SPIRES and arXiv to enter the literature.Many authors upload revised preprints matching the final peer-reviewed version.Source: §2 · p. 4
- The citation analysis covers 286,180 HEP manuscripts from 1991–2007, divided into arXiv-only, journal-only, and arXiv-plus-journal sets.Impact Factor counts citations in year n to articles appearing in years n-1 and n-2; conference proceedings are excluded.Source: §2 · p. 4
- The citation differences may reflect selection effects, early adopters, or authors’ quality-based posting choices; distinguishing these historical and sociological effects requires further analysis.The paper states that this analysis is beyond its scope.Source: §2 · p. 5
- In 2008, articles published and available on arXiv had an Impact Factor five times larger than articles only submitted to arXiv or only published.Figure 2 presents the Impact Factor of those three article sets over time.Source: §2 · p. 4, Figure 2 · p. 5
4. The real advantage: immediacy
In HEP, articles posted to arXiv before publication gain a substantial citation advantage because they can be cited while still preprints. The advantage is already visible at publication and cannot be recouped by articles not posted to arXiv.
4. The real advantage: immediacy
- Articles submitted to arXiv before publication show an immense citation advantage, with citations beginning before publication and a much larger area under their citation curve.The 26,741-article sample covers JHEP and Physical Review D from 1998 to 2007; arXiv submissions were 96.4% of the sample.Source: §4 · pp. 5–6, Figure 3 · p. 6
- The analysis focuses on two of the field's five largest journals, which together cover about half of published HEP literature and are described as representative.The authors restricted the analysis to two journals to simplify data handling.Source: §4 · p. 6
- At publication, arXiv-submitted papers had already received 20% of the citations they would collect by the end of the following two years.The comparison covers 4,839 articles in five major HEP journals published in 2005.Source: §4 · p. 7, Figure 4 · p. 7
- The prepublication citations mean HEP scientists do not wait for journal publication to cite a paper, and the authors say this accelerates scientific and communication processes.The paper relates the pattern to HEP's long use of paper preprints and arXiv since 1991.Source: §4 · p. 7
5. Is there an advantage to publishing in Open Access journals?
The analysis finds no discernible citation advantage from publishing in Open Access journals in HEP. A short, statistically limited comparison suggests that the apparent 2007–2008 advantage may reflect generally higher citation rates for papers from the participating institutions.
5. Is there an advantage to publishing in Open Access journals?
- The 2007–2008 JHEP comparison seems to suggest an Open Access citation advantage, but 2008 papers had little time to accumulate citations.The sample compares the Open Access fraction with the non-Open-Access fraction.Source: §5 · p. 8, Figure 5 · p. 8
- For 2002–2006, papers by authors at institutions later offered Open Access were compared with other papers, and the same advantage appeared before the policy began.The authors report no discernible increase in citation advantage after the institutions began providing Open Access; the data span a short period and have limited statistics.Source: §5 · pp. 8–9
- The 2007–2008 advantage could be attributed to papers from the selected institutions receiving more citations in general.The institutions' Open Access option applied to about 25% of JHEP content in 2007 and 2008.Source: §5 · pp. 8–9
- The authors detect no citation advantage from publication in Open Access journals in HEP.They note that similar findings were obtained in Astrophysics [22], Condensed Matter [23], and Mathematics [24].Source: §5 · p. 9
6. Do scientists still read journals?
SPIRES clickstreams show HEP scientists prefer arXiv preprints over journal versions when both are available. The preference is strong across publishers, journals, and article ages, though several access and workflow features may help explain it.
6. Do scientists still read journals?
- More than a factor four more often, users clicked arXiv than publisher sites when SPIRES records offered both links.The October 2008 clickstream result was mostly independent of publisher, journal, and article age.Source: §6 · p. 9, Figure 6 · p. 9
- The clickstream analysis covered October 2008 clicks from SPIRES records linking to both arXiv and publisher sites.SPIRES searches provide a view of reading after an article has been identified and accessed; about 50% of HEP scientists turn to SPIRES for bibliographic searches.Source: §6 · p. 9
- Equivalent or near-equivalent arXiv versions, earlier availability, and direct full-text links are possible reasons for the preference.Publisher links usually lead first to a splash page requiring another click, while arXiv links go directly to full text.Source: §6 · p. 10
- ArXiv is free, while journal versions are likely subscriber-accessible, and scientists may lack journal access away from work.The authors note this access difference as a further relevant feature of the choice.Source: §6 · p. 10
- Including scientists who search arXiv directly makes arXiv’s advantage over published versions conservative at a factor of eight.The paper estimates there are as many physicists using arXiv directly for bibliographic searches as those using SPIRES.Source: §6 · p. 10
7. Conclusions
The conclusions bring together evidence on repository citations, prepublication dissemination, Open Access journals, and reading choices. In HEP, repositories support rapid scientific discourse, while peer-reviewed journals retain an indispensable accreditation role.
7. Conclusions
- ArXiv-submitted articles receive 5 times more citations than articles not submitted; 20% of HEP article citations over two years occur before publication.The conclusions connect the repository citation advantage to dissemination before publication.Source: §7 · p. 10
- No discernible citation advantage was observed for gold Open Access journals in the statistically limited sample; HEP scientists were 4–8 times more likely to download preprints than journal versions.Source: §7 · p. 10
- Free and immediate circulation of ideas benefits authors and the discipline through faster scientific discourse, and the authors attribute universal Open Access adoption to immediate author benefits.The conclusions say this adoption occurred without mandates or debates.Source: §7 · p. 10
- Peer-reviewed journals remain indispensable for independent accreditation, leaving the relationship between repository discourse and journal accreditation as a challenge.The paper notes that initiatives such as SCOAP3 have begun addressing this challenge.Source: §7 · p. 11