How gold open access helps researchers expand their global impact

Author: Silvia He

A new Springer Nature white paper on the impact of China’s gold open access (OA) articles explores how publishing openly can help research travel further. This blog offers practical insights into how openness, collaboration, and publishing choices can broaden the visibility and use of your work.

The white paper 'Open for impact: China’s gold open access boosting global innovation and supporting the Global South’ analyses China’s rapid growth in gold OA publishing and examines how this research is being cited, downloaded, and used internationally, with a particular focus on its impact in the Global South.  

The findings point to the role OA can play in supporting wider readership and citation by making research immediately available. They further underline how international collaboration can also support the reach and impact of open research. Openness, collaboration, and publishing choices can all influence how far research travels.

How open access can help your research travel further

The volume and impact of articles published gold OA by authors from China has risen substantially in recent years. The two-year citations of these articles (citations received within two years of publication) rose from 1.8 million for OA articles published in 2020 to 2.8 million for those published in 2022, an increase of 55%. But where these citations come from is just as telling as how many citations these articles attract.

Nearly 40% of citations to gold OA articles published by authors from China in 2022 came from publications with no authors in China. In other words, a substantial share of the research citing these articles was produced entirely outside China, indicating that the work is being used beyond the domestic research community of the original authors. For researchers more broadly, this shows how OA can help research become more visible to readers outside their immediate institution, country, or existing networks of its authors.

Increasing the visibility of research beyond academia with gold open access

Publishing OA can also make your research more visible to audiences beyond academia, including policymakers, practitioners, innovators, and the wider public. Indeed, the white paper shows that China’s gold OA articles are attracting substantial Altmetric attention, which tracks mentions in news coverage, policy documents, patents, social media, and other online sources.

China’s gold OA articles published in 2022 achieved a combined Altmetric Score of 703,000, increasing by 26% compared to 2020. Articles published in 2024 had already reached 510,000 despite having had less time to accumulate attention.

“OA helps make research accessible; collaboration can strengthen its relevance, networks, and potential readership across regions.”

Removing barriers to make your research accessible to audiences worldwide

Access is a precondition for impact. No matter how relevant a piece of research is, readers cannot use and build on it if they cannot easily access it. When you publish your research gold OA, you remove that access barrier by making the final published article immediately available online. It is then easier for readers in regions with access barriers to find, read, and build on your research.

This access point is reflected in one of the clearest patterns observed in the white paper: the difference between the use of OA and non-OA articles in the Global South. In Springer Nature hybrid journals that published more than 10 OA articles from China between 2020 and 2022, OA articles received 5.2 citations from the Global South per article, compared with 2.7 for non-OA articles, meaning 92% more citations for OA. These OA articles also received more than 4.8 times as many downloads per article in the Global South.

Collaboration can amplify the effects of openness and extend the reach of your research

Combining open publishing with collaboration can also contribute to the reach of publications. The white paper analyses the growth of China’s collaboration, showing that gold OA articles co-authored by researchers in China and the Global South increased from 11,000 in 2020 to 19,000 in 2024, representing an average annual growth rate of 15%. These collaborations were associated with strong citation impact. Gold OA articles co-authored by researchers in China and the Global South generated 195,000 two-year citations for articles published in 2020, rising to 303,000 for articles published in 2022.

More importantly, the collaborations benefited not only the Global South, but China as well. In 2022, co-authored gold OA articles between China and the Global South received 16.1 two-year citations per article, compared with 5.1 for all Global South gold OA articles and 9.9 for all China gold OA articles.

This suggests that openness and collaboration can work together. OA helps make research accessible; collaboration can strengthen its relevance, networks, and potential readership across regions. For researchers, the broader lesson is that impact can be strengthened when openness is combined with meaningful international collaboration.

The importance of where you publish: Citation advantage with Springer Nature gold OA

Publishing open access is an important step in increasing the visibility of research, but where you publish can also influence who discovers and engages with your work. Case studies presented in the white paper suggest that where research is published can influence how widely it is used.

For example, gold OA articles from China's top 20 institutions published in 2022 in Springer Nature journals generally received more citations from researchers in the Global South than the broader market average for gold OA articles. The University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, for example, recorded 4.7 Global South citations per gold OA article in Springer Nature journals, compared with 2.7 across all publishers.

The citation advantage is visible across a selection of disciplines analysed in the white paper. In each research area examined, China’s gold OA articles published in Springer Nature journals received more citations from the Global South per article than the market average.

What researchers can learn from the impact of China’s OA

Your research can have greater influence when it is easier to access and to discover, and when it is connected to the communities that can use it. The white paper shows that gold OA helps research move across disciplines and regions.

Openness can provide a foundation for greater visibility and stronger international engagement, while international collaboration can extend reach. Combined with informed decisions on where to publish, your work can reach more readers, generate discussion, and create real-world impact.

Explore the white paper: Open for impact: China’s gold open access boosting global innovation and supporting the Global South. And to maximise your work’s reach, consider publishing your next article open access with Springer Nature.

Related content:  

• Open for impact: What China’s OA growth shows about the future of global research
• China OA on the rise: What are the drivers behind authors’ OA choice?
• From research to policymaking: insights from China
• How Chinese research is shaping global SDG policy
• Enabling open access publishing in Asia and Oceania

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