Intended for healthcare professionals

Letters Open access publishing

And now, e-publication bias

BMJ 2010; 340 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.c2243 (Published 28 April 2010) Cite this as: BMJ 2010;340:c2243
  1. Ane Krag Jakobsen, MD1,
  2. Robin Christensen, senior biostatistician2,
  3. Robert Persson, MD3,
  4. Else Marie Bartels, senior research librarian2,
  5. Lars Erik Kristensen, MD4
  1. 1Department of Urology, Roskilde University Hospital, 4000 Roskilde, Denmark
  2. 2Parker Institute: Musculoskeletal Statistics Unit, Copenhagen, Denmark
  3. 3Eden Primary Care Unit, Region Skåne, Malmö, Sweden
  4. 4Department of Clinical Sciences, Lund, Section of Rheumatology, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
  1. anekrag{at}yahoo.com

    In open access publishing scholarly communication is made available free of charge on the internet. In biomedical research, authors or sponsors often pay a fee to a publisher to enable immediate free online access.1 2 A few journals operate entirely under this model, whereas others use a hybrid model allowing authors to choose between subscription access and author-paid open access.

    We investigated the association between funding of biomedical research by industry and author-paid open access publishing in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, a journal in the BMJ Group. We included extended reports published during October 2007 to September 2008, defining primary exposure as study funding from an industrial source with commercial interests in the area studied, and secondary exposure as other author-industry affiliations. Access (the outcome measure) was defined as locked (subscription access) or unlocked (open access).

    Of 216 extended reports, 71 had received funding from an industrial sponsor. A significantly higher proportion of industry funded studies were published unlocked (12/71 (17%) v 11/145 (8%)) (table). Studies with at least one author declaring other affiliations with industry also showed a significantly higher frequency of unlocked papers. There was no significant interaction between study design and funding in relation to open access.

    Effect of primary and secondary exposures and potential confounders on open access status

    View this table:

    Our results show that author-paid open access publishing preferentially increases accessibility to studies funded by industry. This could favour dissemination of pro-industry results.3 4 5 We suggest the term e-publication bias for this emerging type of publication bias in open access hybrid journals, which may be relevant beyond the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases and rheumatology.

    Notes

    Cite this as: BMJ 2010;340:c2243

    Footnotes

    • Competing interests: RC is editor in the Cochrane Collaboration (Cochrane Musculoskeletal Review Group).

    References