Introduction Open access (OpAcc) peer-reviewed publications are increasing in orthopaedic surgery. OpAcc modalities are grouped by article fee in a tier system ranging from “Hybrid” (most expensive) to “Gold”/open journal to “Bronze”/closed license and “Green”/open repository (Free). The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between OpAcc publication type, citations, and dissemination of publications in total hip arthroplasty (THA) peer-reviewed literature. Methods THA peer-reviewed OpAcc journal articles published since 2016 were identified using the Altmetric Explorer Database. Open journal articles had a mean fee of 2097. Hybrid articles, individual articles made OpAcc in non-OpAcc journals, had an average fee of 2727. Closed license articles and open repository articles have no author fee. To assess reach, we examined the Altmetric Attention Score (AAS), the Mendeley Readership score (MRS), and citations. Results were evaluated via independent t-tests and Tukey’s analysis; alpha=. 05. A subsequent subgroup analysis of articles was conducted on articles published in the top 7 orthopaedic surgery journals. Results 9, 405 publications were included in the study. Bronze articles (n=669) had the greatest mean citations (12, P<0. 001). Hybrid articles (n=490) had the greatest mean AAS (8. 1, P<0. 001). Green articles (n=743) had the greatest mean MRS (32, P<0. 001). Gold articles (n=2315) had significantly lower citations (7. 6), AAS (4. 3), and MRS (24) scores than all other assessed OpAcc types (P≤0. 045). Conclusions Among peer-reviewed OpAcc publications in THA literature, there is no association between amount paid for OpAcc publication and citations or social media attention. Free OpAcc publication formats, Green and Bronze, had the highest mean readership and citations scores, respectively.
Bontemps et al. (Thu,) studied this question.