From Peter Suber's blog "Open Access News" Stevan Harnad's Haworth column, first in a series Stevan Harnad, On Maximizing Journal Article Access, Usage and Impact, Haworth Press, April 21, 2005. The first in a series of occasional columns called "Skywritings: Scholarly and Leisurely". This inaugural column brings readers up to speed on current OA issues, to set the stage for future columns. Excerpt: 'The mainstay of an author's research usage and impact is, and will remain, the publication of the article in the best possible peer-reviewed journal in its field. The bulk of the usage and citations will come from those users who have an individual or institutional subscription or site-license to the journal in which it is published (and, increasingly, to the online version of that journal). But the online age has also provided a way for authors to maximize their articles' usage and impact by supplementing this paid access to the publisher's official version of their article with an open access version of the article that authors self-archive on their own institutional websites for any would-be users webwide who cannot afford the paid access to the publisher's official version. A growing number of studies is showing that articles that have been supplemented with such self-archived versions have higher (and sometimes substantially higher) citation impacts than articles that have not been self-archived. All parties to the research publication and production co-benefit from this supplementary open-access self-archiving: Authors, their institutions, their funders, their publishers, and research itself. The author receives more citations (as well as more downloads). The institution has greater research impact, and its research output is more visible, attracting more researchers, students, and research funding. The research funder (and the tax payer funding the funder) receives greater return on their investment in the research. The journal gains a higher citation impact factor, wider visibility and greater usage per published article. And of course the progress and productivity of researchers and research itself are enhanced.'   From Peter Suber's blog "Open Access News" Stevan Harnad's Haworth column, first in a series [A]   Stevan Harnad, http://www.haworthpressinc.com/library/StevanHarnad/04212005.asp On Maximizing Journal Article Access, Usage and Impact , Haworth Press, April 21, 2005. The first in a series of occasional columns called "Skywritings: Scholarly and Leisurely". This inaugural column brings readers up to speed on current OA issues, to set the stage for future columns. Excerpt: 'The mainstay of an author's research usage and impact is, and will remain, the publication of the article in the best possible peer-reviewed journal in its field. The bulk of the usage and citations will come from those users who have an individual or institutional subscription or site-license to the journal in which it is published (and, increasingly, to the online version of that journal). But the online age has also provided a way for authors to maximize their articles' usage and impact by supplementing this paid access to the publisher's official version of their article with an open access version of the article that authors self-archive on their own institutional websites for any would-be users webwide who cannot afford the paid access to the publisher's official version. A growing number of http://opcit.eprints.org/oacitation-biblio.html studies is showing that articles that have been supplemented with such self-archived versions have higher (and sometimes substantially higher) citation impacts than articles that have not been self-archived. All parties to the research publication and production co-benefit from this supplementary open-access self-archiving: Authors, their institutions, their funders, their publishers, and research itself. The author receives more citations (as well as more http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/10647/ downloads ). The institution has greater research impact, and its research output is more visible, attracting more researchers, students, and research funding. The research funder (and the tax payer funding the funder) receives greater return on their investment in the research. The journal gains a higher citation impact factor, wider visibility and greater usage per published article. And of course the progress and productivity of researchers and research itself are enhanced.'