Various studies address the question of whether Open Science practices have measurable effects on the research process, for example in the form of citation benefits. Sometimes positive effects can be observed in one discipline and negative effects in another. The following overview summarizes measurable effects from studies for economics, business administration, and other disciplines.

Open access

Usage

• There is evidence that Open Access publications are used more extensively and by a more diverse audience than restricted literature, with significantly higher download numbers and page views (Meta study on various disciplines). [1] However, the picture is heterogeneous by discipline and type of Open Access. [2] One study even found Closed Access articles showing the highest usage (views and downloads), despite Open Access leading on citations and attention. [3]

Citations

• An Open Access citation advantage is confirmed by the majority of studies, but cannot be regarded as fully empirically proven (meta study on various disciplines). [1] A 2025 scoping review of 485 studies on the impact of Open Science confirms this picture: most studies report positive or at least mixed citation effects, though a substantial share find none, and no study has established a causal relationship between openness and citations. [4]
• The size of the Open Access citation advantage is conditional and appears to be shrinking over time, varying by Open Access type, discipline, and period, per a study of library and information science journals. [5]
• Several studies find a positive effect of Green (and often Hybrid) Open Access on citations, while Gold Open Access tends to show a smaller, mixed, or even negative citation effect. This pattern is found both specifically for economics [6][2] and more broadly across disciplines [4], with Gold Open Access's relative newness as journals often cited as one explanation [6][4]. Differentiating further between Gold, Hybrid, Green, and Bronze Open Access shows that no single model consistently outperforms the others: different studies identify different models as strongest depending on the metric and field examined. [3][7]
• No clear, or only highly subject- and platform-specific effects of Open Access on online attention (Altmetrics) have been found. [8][3]
• Open Access articles in medicine and biotechnology are increasingly cited in patents. [9]

Preprints

• Preprints have emerged as the most consistently positive Open Science practice in terms of citation effects across disciplines. The PLOS-based study found preprint posting associated with a roughly 20% citation advantage; the French Open Science Monitor found a comparable 19% advantage. [17][18] Earlier discipline-specific evidence pointed in the same direction: bioRxiv preprints showed a substantial and long-lasting citation and altmetric advantage compared to non-deposited articles in the same journals. [19] In economics and management, the working-paper culture (Econstor, SSRN, RePEc) plays a similar role to preprints in other fields and is reflected in the strong Green Open Access effect noted above. [6]

Quality

• Evidence on quality differences between Open Access and restricted-access publications is mixed. Some studies find no difference, others report lower quality among Open access articles. [1][4][10]

Economic and social effects

• There are indications of positive economic effects of Open Access, including efficiency gains through time and cost savings in accessing knowledge, contributions to innovation (with Open Access research disproportionately cited in patents), and potential contributions to economic growth through faster, more accessible R&D. However, the evidence base remains limited, drawing mainly on case studies and country-specific models rather than broad, generalizable data. [11]
• Open Access also improves the transfer of knowledge to society. Open Access publications receive more attention and engagement outside academia, including on social media, in news outlets, and in policy documents. [12] Non-scientific sources such as patents and court documents also reference Open Access publications more often than closed-access ones. [1]

Effects on the publication system

• Neither an increase nor a decrease in the volume of publications can be generalized as a result of Open Access, though Open Access does shorten the time between submission and acceptance or publication of articles. [1] There is no connection between the publication of books in Open Access and the sales figures of a parallel existing print edition. [1]
• There were concerns that DEAL could give participating publishers a competitive advantage in Germany, strengthening the concentration process in the market for scientific journals. [13] Newer evidence is mixed on whether this has actually happened: a global analysis of over 1,000 transformative agreements finds institutions locked into the hybrid publishing system, supporting the concentration concern. [14] But a discipline-by-discipline analysis of the German DEAL agreements specifically finds little measurable effect on where researchers choose to publish, providing limited support for the feared concentration. [15]
• Open Access business models with Article Processing Charges (APCs) remain a barrier for certain groups of authors, particularly those at financially weaker institutions, in the Global South, and outside the higher education sector. This barrier is strongest at lower levels of institutional resourcing and weakens once a funding threshold is reached, and existing APC waiver programs appear largely ineffective at overcoming it. [16]

OPEN DATA

Citations

• There is evidence of a small positive citation effect from sharing data openly, though it is inconsistent, varies substantially by field, and no study has established a causal relationship. [17][18][4] Two competing dynamics appear to be at play: a "credit effect" that increases early citations to data-sharing publications, and a "competition effect" through which other researchers reuse the data in their own work rather than citing the original, which can reduce citations later on. [20]
• Only weak, non-statistically significant evidence has been found for a positive Open Data citation effect specifically in economics. [21]
• Open Data has been shown to significantly increase the citations of journal articles in economics, with a spillover effect on previously published articles when journals introduce a mandatory Open Data policy. The authors attribute this effect to the increased academic reputation of the journal. [22]
• However, this benefit is not necessarily lasting: one study found that a mandatory Open Data policy quickly increased citations for Chinese economics articles, but the benefit shrank over time and turned negative within a few years. [23]

OPEN CODE

Citations

• Overall, evidence on a citation advantage from code sharing is mixed and less consistent than for other Open Science practices. One large-scale study finds no significant advantage. [17] Another finds a positive effect, sometimes especially pronounced in the social sciences. [18] A study in ecology and evolution finds code is still rarely shared, but code-sharing papers accumulate citations faster over time, with the advantage compounding when combined with data sharing and Open Access. [24] A study in astrophysics finds similar positive effects for open code, open data, and Open Access alike. [25]

Literature

[1] Hopf, David; Dellmann, Sarah; Hauschke, Christian; Tullney, Marco; Wirkungen von Open Access. Literaturstudie über empirische Arbeiten 2010–2021; 2022

[2] Dote Pardo, Jairo Stefano; Impact of open access on academic visibility: a systematic review of the literature; Journal of Documentation 82(1), 16–42; 2026

[3] Hadad, Shlomit; Raban, Daphne R.; Aharony, Noa; Assessing the academic and societal impact of Open Access: bibliometric and altmetric analyses; Scientometrics 130(11), 6375–6402; 2025

[4] Klebel, Thomas; Traag, Vincent; Grypari, Ilektra; Stoy, Ludo; Ross-Hellauer, Tony; The academic impact of Open Science: a scoping review; Royal Society Open Science 12(3), 241248; 2025

[5] Lee, S., & Shim, W.; An empirical analysis of open access citation advantages in library and information science; Information Research 31(iConf), 1733–1750; 2026

[6] Eger, Thomas; Mertens, Armin; Scheufen, Marc; Publication cultures and the citation impact of open access; 2021

[7] Long, R. K., et al.; The Effect of Open Access on Scholarly and Societal Metrics of Impact in the ASHA Journals; Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 66(6), 1948–1957; 2023

[8] Holmberg, Kim; Hedman, Juha; Bowman, Timothy D.; Didegah, Fereshteh; Laakso, Mikael; An investigation of the research output of Finnish universities; 2020

[9] Maddi, A., Abdin, A. Y., & De Pretis, F.; Open science, open innovation? The role of open access in patenting activity; Scientometrics; 2026

[10] Zhao, Q. et al.; Methodological Quality of Open Access Compared to Traditional Journal Publications in the Plastic Surgery Literature; Aesthetic Plastic Surgery; 2023

[11] Tsipouri, Lena; Liarti, Katerina; Vignetti, Silvia; Martins Grapengiesser, Fabian; The economic impact of open science: a scoping review; Royal Society Open Science 12(9), 250754; 2025

[12] Cole, Nathan; Kormann, Adriane; Klebel, Thomas; Apartis, Sarah; Ross-Hellauer, Tony; The Societal Impact of Open Science – a Scoping Review; SocArXiv; 2024

[13] Haucap, Justus; Moshgbar, Nima; Schmal, Wolfgang Benedikt; The Impact of the German 'DEAL' on Competition in the Academic Publishing Market; 2021

[14] Rothfritz, Laura; Herb, Ulrich; Schmal, Wolfgang Benedikt; Trapped in Transformative Agreements? A Multifaceted Analysis; 2024 [preprint]

[15] Schmal, Wolfgang Benedikt; How transformative are transformative agreements? Evidence from Germany across disciplines; Scientometrics 129, 1863–1889; 2024

[16] Klebel, Thomas; Ross-Hellauer, Tony; The APC-barrier and its effect on stratification in open access publishing; Quantitative Science Studies 4, 22–43; 2023

[17] Colavizza, Giovanni; Cadwallader, Lindsay; LaFlamme, Marc; Dozot, Grégory; Lecorney, Louis; Rappo, Denis; Hrynaszkiewicz, Iain; An analysis of the effects of sharing research data, code, and preprints on citations; PLOS ONE 19(10), e0311493; 2024

[18] Colavizza, Giovanni; Cadwallader, Lindsay; Hrynaszkiewicz, Iain; An analysis of the effects of open science indicators on citations in the French Open Science Monitor; arXiv:2508.20747; 2025 [preprint]

[19] Fraser, Nicholas; Momeni, Fakhri; Mayr, Philipp; Peters, Isabella; The effect of bioRxiv preprints on citations and altmetrics; Quantitative Science Studies; 2020

[20] Kwon, S., & Motohashi, K.; Incentive or disincentive for research data disclosure? A large-scale empirical analysis and implications for open science policy; International Journal of Information Management 60, 102371; 2021

[21] McCabe, Mark J.; Mueller-Langer, Frank; Does Data Disclosure Increase Citations? Empirical Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Leading Economics Journals; 2019

[22] Zhang, Liwei; Ma, Liang; Does open data boost journal impact: evidence from Chinese economics; 2021

[23] Zhang, Liwei; Ma, Liang; Is open science a double-edged sword?: data sharing and the changing citation pattern of Chinese economics articles; Scientometrics 128, 2803–2818; 2023

[24] Maitner, Brian, et al.; Code sharing in ecology and evolution increases citation rates but remains uncommon; Ecology and Evolution; 2024 [25] Joshi, Aayush; Croft, Steve; Open Science in Astrophysics: Citation Benefits of Open Code, Open Data, and Open Access; arXiv:2607.00546; 2025 [preprint]