Abstract
ObjectivesThis study established the percentage of veterinary research articles that are freely available online, availability differences inside and outside of core veterinary medicine publications, sources and trends in article availability over time, and author archiving policies of veterinary journals. This research is particularly important for unaffiliated practitioners who lack broad subscription access and the librarians who assist them.MethodsWeb of Science citation data were collected for articles published from 2000–2014 by authors from twenty-eight accredited US colleges of veterinary medicine. A sample of these articles was searched by title in Google Scholar to determine which were freely available online and their sources. Journals represented in this dataset and a basic list of veterinary serials were cross-referenced with the Sherpa/RoMEO database to determine author archiving policies and the percentage of articles that could potentially be made freely available.ResultsOver half (62%) of the sample articles were freely available online, most of which (57%) were available from publishers’ websites. Articles published more recently were more likely to be freely available. More articles were found to be available in 2017 (62%) than in 2015 (57%). Most (62%) of the included journals had policies allowing authors to archive copies of their articles.ConclusionsMany articles are freely available online, but opportunity exists to archive additional articles while complying with existing copyright agreements. Articles in veterinary medicine–specific journals are less likely to be freely available than those in interdisciplinary journals. Requirements for federally funded research have likely influenced article availability and may continue to do so.
Highlights
Access to freely available veterinary literature is of particular concern to librarians and academic veterinary medical librarians, because they are frequently asked about access to the published literature by veterinary professionals who lack subscription access via institutional affiliation
In light of the desire of veterinary practitioners to inform their decision-making using the published literature and of veterinary authors to make their work accessible to these practitioners, this paper addresses the following questions: First, how much of the veterinary literature is available for free online to anyone, and where is that literature found? Second, what are veterinary authors’ options for providing access to their research through choosing an open access (OA) publication venue or retaining the right to self-archive?
Determining archiving policies of journals in which veterinary authors publish Sherpa Services allows anyone to download the content of the Sherpa/RoMEO database as an extensible markup language (XML) file using their application programmer’s interface (API) [16]
Summary
Access to freely available veterinary literature is of particular concern to librarians and academic veterinary medical librarians, because they are frequently asked about access to the published literature by veterinary professionals who lack subscription access via institutional affiliation. These unaffiliated practitioners constitute the majority of veterinarians, fewer than 6% of whom work at colleges or universities [1]. Veterinary practitioners are increasingly making use of the published literature as part of their problem-solving and clinical decision-making processes, with a move toward online resources over time. The improved discoverability of online content led to an increase in the use of journal articles in veterinary decision-making, with veterinarians indicating in 2011 that they read articles from a wide range of journals [5]
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