Open Science for Social Sciences and Humanities: Open Access availability and distribution across disciplines and Countries in OpenCitations Meta - RESEARCH ARTICLE

This is the research article for Open Science for Social Sciences and Humanities: Open  Access availability and distribution across disciplines and  Countries in OpenCitations Meta, a study carried out in the contest of the Open Science course 22/23 at the University of Bologna.

Abstract:

Purpose: this study aims to investigate the representation and distribution of Social Science and Humanities (SSH) journals within the OpenCitations Meta database, with a particular emphasis on their Open Access (OA) status, as well as their spread across different disciplines and countries. The underlying premise is that open infrastructures play a pivotal role in promoting transparency, reproducibility, and trust in scientific research.
Study Design and Methodology: the study is grounded on the premise that open infrastructures are crucial for ensuring transparency, reproducibility, and fostering trust in scientific research. The research methodology involved the use of secondary data sources, namely the OpenCitations Meta database, the ERIH PLUS bibliographic index, and the DOAJ index. A custom research software was developed in Python to facilitate the processing and analysis of the data.
Findings: the results reveal that 78.1% of SSH journals listed in the European Reference Index for the Humanities (ERIH-PLUS) are included in the OpenCitations Meta database. The discipline of Psychology has the highest number of publications. The United States and the United Kingdom are the leading contributors in terms of the number of publications. However, the study also uncovers that only 38% of the SSH journals in the OpenCitations Meta database are OA.
Originality: this research adds to the existing body of knowledge by providing insights into the representation of SSH in open bibliographic databases and the role of open access in this domain. The study highlights the necessity for advocating OA practices within SSH and the significance of open data for bibliometric studies. It further encourages additional research into the impact of OA on various facets of citation patterns and the factors leading to disparity across disciplinary representation.

Related material:

Ghasempouri, S., Ghiotto, M., Giacomini, S. (2023). Open Science for Social Science and Humanities: Open Access availability and distribution across disciplines and Countries in OpenCitations Meta - DATA MANAGEMENT PLAN (Version 4). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8174644

Ghasempouri, S., Ghiotto, M., Giacomini, S. (2023). Open Science for Social Sciences and Humanities: Open Access availability and distribution across disciplines and Countries in OpenCitations Meta - PROTOCOL. V.5. (https://dx.doi.org/10.17504/protocols.io.5jyl8jo1rg2w/v5)

Ghasempouri, S., Ghiotto, M., Giacomini, S.(2023). open-sci/2022-2023-playarists-code: Open Science for Social Sciences and Humanities: Open Access availability and distribution across disciplines and Countries in OpenCitations Meta - RESEARCH SOFTWARE (v1.1.0). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8253819

Ghasempouri, S., Ghiotto, M., Giacomini, S. (2023). Open Science for Social Sciences and Humanities: Open Access availability and distribution across disciplines and Countries in OpenCitations Meta - RESULTS DATASET (without Mega Journals) (Version 2.0.0) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8249907

Ghasempouri, S., Ghiotto, M., Giacomini, S. (2023). Open Science for Social Sciences and Humanities: Open Access availability and distribution across disciplines and Countries in OpenCitations Meta - RESULTS DATASET (with Mega Journals) (Version 1.1.0) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8250858