Impact of archiving manuscripts in institutional/subject repositories on knowledge translation
| ISRCTN | ISRCTN70542690 |
|---|---|
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1186/ISRCTN70542690 |
| Protocol serial number | MOP-84476 |
| Sponsor | University Health Network (Canada) |
| Funder | Canadian Institutes of Health Research (Canada), ref: MOP-84476 |
- Submission date
- 08/07/2008
- Registration date
- 08/08/2008
- Last edited
- 11/07/2014
- Recruitment status
- No longer recruiting
- Overall study status
- Completed
- Condition category
- Other
Prospectively registered
Protocol
Statistical analysis plan
Results
Individual participant data
Record updated in last year
Plain English summary of protocol
Not provided at time of registration
Contact information
Prof Gunther Eysenbach
Scientific
Scientific
190 Elizabeth St
Toronto
M5G 2C4
Canada
Study information
| Primary study design | Interventional |
|---|---|
| Study design | Randomised controlled trial |
| Secondary study design | Randomised controlled trial |
| Study type | Participant information sheet |
| Scientific title | |
| Study objectives | New public policies in the United States of America (USA), Canada, and other countries stipulate that publicly funded research must be made publicly accessible, for example by depositing it in subject repositories such as PubMed Central or in institutional repositories. It is unclear if this results in higher visibility and higher number of citations. We will investigate whether manuscripts which are accessible through PubMed Central (PMC) or other repositories receive a higher citation count than manuscripts which are not made accessible through "self-archiving" (i.e., depositing manuscripts in subject repositories). |
| Ethics approval(s) | Ethics approval pending from the University Health Network Research Ethics Board (UHN REB) as of 10/07/2008. Application submitted on 07/07/2008. |
| Health condition(s) or problem(s) studied | Medical publishing |
| Intervention | The unit to be randomised are published manuscripts. The authors will be sending their manuscripts to be randomised so that the authors will not know whether the manuscript will be either archived on Pubmed Central (intervention) or not (control). A citation analysis will be performed every 6 months for a minimum of 3 years. Subset analyses. The data analysis plan involves comparing the mean number of citations as well as the proportion of uncited manuscripts between the control and intervention group every 6 months. We are also planning three separate subset analyses: 1. We will compare the two groups within discipline-specific subgroups 2. We will compare the two groups in subgroups depending on the timing of open access (e.g. a subgroup of only those articles which are immediately open access, or within a subgroup of manuscripts which are open access after 12 months) 3. We will compare the groups in subgroups of highly cited and less cited manuscripts at baseline |
| Intervention type | Other |
| Primary outcome measure(s) |
Citations within the scientific literature, assessed every 6 months. |
| Key secondary outcome measure(s) |
Other measurements for uptake and dissemination of scientific knowledge, including: |
| Completion date | 01/08/2013 |
Eligibility
| Participant type(s) | Patient |
|---|---|
| Age group | Other |
| Sex | All |
| Target sample size at registration | 200 |
| Key inclusion criteria | 1. Authors of manuscripts with at least one NIH-funded co-author 2. Manuscript published between January 1st 2008 and April 7th 2008 3. Manuscript is not already accessible on PMC or as free full text elsewhere 4. The copyright policies of the journal allow 'self-archiving' on subject repositories such as PMC |
| Key exclusion criteria | 1. Authors whose email address is not listed in the affiliation field of PubMed 2. Letters, editorials, and reviews |
| Date of first enrolment | 01/08/2008 |
| Date of final enrolment | 01/08/2013 |
Locations
Countries of recruitment
- Canada
Study participating centre
190 Elizabeth St
Toronto
M5G 2C4
Canada
M5G 2C4
Canada
Results and Publications
| Individual participant data (IPD) Intention to share | No |
|---|---|
| IPD sharing plan summary | |
| IPD sharing plan |
Study outputs
| Output type | Details | Date created | Date added | Peer reviewed? | Patient-facing? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Participant information sheet | Participant information sheet | 11/11/2025 | 11/11/2025 | No | Yes |
