Open Access Publishing: A Study of Current Practice in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Research.
BACKGROUND
Open access (OA) publication has become an increasingly common route for dissemination of scientific research findings. However, it remains a contentious issue with continued debate as to its impact on the peer-review process and a potential change in the quality of subsequent evidence published. There is little research that looks into OA in oral and maxillofacial surgery.


METHODS
We investigated the OA policy in the 30 relevant journals listed in the Institute for Scientific Information Web of Knowledge journal citation report, comparing bibliometric data and quality of evidence produced in journals offering OA and those with subscription-only policies.


RESULTS
3474 articles were graded for evidence level and the results correlated to journal OA status. 76.7 % of journals offered authors OA services. There was no difference between impact factor, self-citation rate, total citations or quality of evidence between OA and subscription journals.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings should send clear messages to both clinicians and researchers and should re- assure readers that scientific findings that are disseminated in open access form do not differ in quality to those in subscription-only format. It should reinforce that open access formats are a credible way to display research findings in oral and maxillofacial surgery.
Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, The Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel Road, London, E1 1BB UK.
Arpan
A
Tahim
Imperial College London, London, UK.
Hitesh
H
Bansal
Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Morriston Hospital, Swansea, UK.
Alexander M C
AM
Goodson
Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Worcestershire Royal Hosital, Worcester, UK.
Karl F B
KF
Payne
Imperial College London, London, UK.
Sanjeeve
S
Sabharwal
Education and research; Open access; Oral and maxillofacial surgery research