Science Editing

Original Article

Trends in scientific output on open science and open access (2015–2024): a bibliometric study: María del Pilar Castro Arellano, Jesús Enrique Quezada Castro; Received December 9, 2025 Accepted January 6, 2026 Published online February 24, 2026; DOI: https://doi.org/10.6087/kcse.398 [Epub ahead of print]

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Abstract PDF: Purpose
Open science is a phenomenon that promotes transparency and collaboration in knowledge generation. However, its adoption remains uneven, and the field is still undergoing consolidation. The objective of this bibliometric study was to map trends in scientific production related to open science and open access.
Methods
The PRISMA statement was applied, and predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria were used to guide study selection. A total of 1,826 documents published between 2015 and 2024 were retrieved from the Scopus database. Data processing and analysis were conducted using the Biblioshiny interface.
Results
Scientific output demonstrated an annual growth rate of 24.1%. Articles, conference papers, and reviews were identified as the preferred publication formats. Canada, Italy, and the United States emerged as leading countries in the promotion of collaborative research networks. The most frequently occurring keywords included open science, open access, open data, data sharing, reproducibility, and scholarly communication. A thematic evolution was observed, shifting from an initial educational focus toward increased emphasis on technological applications.
Conclusion
Over the past decade, scientific output related to open science and open access has increased steadily and has been disseminated through multidisciplinary sources. This trend reflects the ongoing transformation of scientific communication and highlights opportunities for publishers to implement policies that support open knowledge dissemination. Publications appearing in Q1 Scopus journals demonstrated strong reliability in knowledge dissemination.

Case Study

The Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology’s number of articles and turnaround time before and after the COVID-19 pandemic: a case study: Sang-Jun Kim; Sci Ed. 2025;12(1):50-56. Published online February 12, 2025; DOI: https://doi.org/10.6087/kcse.361

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Abstract PDF: This case study investigated changes in research articles from the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB) during the COVID-19 pandemic to share information with stakeholders in the research and publishing communities. Data on research published from 2017 to 2024 were collected by searching the database for the number of research articles indexed in Web of Science’s Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE), and then extracting the publication date of research articles from the KRIBB’s paper management system. After the number of WoS-SCIE research articles was scaled down by the corresponding number of KRIBB’s SCIE articles in 2017, we analyzed differences in the publication turnaround times of KRIBB’s research articles based on whether MDPI was involved. In both WoS-SCIE and KRIBB data, the impact of MDPI exhibited a clear decline in 2023, a trend that continued into 2024. Generally, KRIBB’s non-MDPI research articles were published more rapidly in high-frequency journals, journals with low impact factors, and for COVID-19–related topics; however, this difference gradually diminished. In 2023, there was a notable reversal from a decrease to an increase in publication speed following COVID-19, along with a narrowing of the gaps between different stages of publication. It remains uncertain whether this trend will continue. Collecting additional similar case studies could provide a more accurate understanding of the changes and trends in the article publishing industry during the COVID-19 period.

Original Articles

How Spanish educational researchers used Twitter/X as a platform to promote the dissemination of scientific knowledge: a descriptive study: Elias Said-Hung, Sergio Arce-García, Daria Mottareale-Calvanese; Sci Ed. 2024;11(2):123-133. Published online June 26, 2024; DOI: https://doi.org/10.6087/kcse.336

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Abstract PDF Supplementary Material: Purpose
This study aimed to examine how educational researchers in Spain promoted the dissemination of scientific knowledge on Twitter/X as a platform and to contrast their approach with science influencers in the same country.
Methods
Accounts on the Twitter/X service belonging to 210 Spanish researchers were analyzed, and their 2016–2020 tweets were compared to those of 38 Twitter/X influencers. Text mining techniques, sentiment and emotion analysis, network analysis, and the Kardashian index (K-index) were used in the study.
Results
The results indicated a low academic presence of researchers (4.4%) on Twitter/X. The researchers shared 185,020 posts (38.7% original content and 61.3% retweets). A network analysis revealed low interconnectivity among researchers, with distinct clusters based on their interests or affiliations. The top influencers had strong connections with the news media. The researchers focused minimally on academic topics, while the influencers emphasized the dissemination of scientific findings. The impact of the researchers’ posts was minimal, with low K-index values, whereas the influencers had greater reach because of their follower base.
Conclusion
When using Twitter/X, the researchers had a minimal impact on the dissemination of scientific information because they published few original posts and relied instead on retweets unrelated to their academic or research activities. Consequently, the researchers did not use Twitter/X as a tool for scientific communication, which limited the potential for forming new connections beyond their existing social and academic networks. Promoting informal learning that encompasses diverse knowledge and learning levels is crucial to fostering greater engagement and collaboration.

Changes in the absolute numbers and proportions of open access articles from 2000 to 2021 based on the Web of Science Core Collection: a bibliometric study: Jeong-Wook Seo; Sci Ed. 2023;10(1):45-56. Published online February 16, 2023; DOI: https://doi.org/10.6087/kcse.296

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2 Web of Science
2 Crossref

Abstract PDF Supplementary Material

Purpose
The ultimate goal of current open access (OA) initiatives is for library services to use OA resources. This study aimed to assess the infrastructure for OA scholarly information services by tabulating the number and proportion of OA articles in a literature database.
Methods
We measured the absolute numbers and proportions of OA articles at different time points across various disciplines based on the Web of Science (WoS) database.
Results
The number (proportion) of available OA articles between 2000 and 2021 in the WoS database was 12 million (32.4%). The number (proportion) of indexed OA articles in 1 year was 0.15 million (14.6%) in 2000 and 1.5 million (48.0%) in 2021. The proportion of OA by subject categories in the cumulative data was the highest in the multidisciplinary category (2000–2021, 79%; 2021, 89%), high in natural sciences (2000–2021, 21%–46%; 2021, 41%–62%) and health and medicine (2000–2021, 37%–40%; 2021, 52%–60%), and low in social sciences and others (2000–2021, 23%–32%; 2021, 36%–44%), engineering (2000–2021, 17%–33%; 2021, 31%–39%) and humanities and arts (2000–2021, 11%–22%; 2021, 28%–38%).
Conclusion
Our study confirmed that increasingly many OA research papers have been published in the last 20 years, and the recent data show considerable promise for better services in the future. The proportions of OA articles differed among scholarly disciplines, and designing library services necessitates several considerations with regard to the customers’ demands, available OA resources, and strategic approaches to encourage the use of scholarly OA articles.

Citations

Citations to this article as recorded by

A guide for structured literature reviews in business research: The state-of-the-art and how to integrate generative artificial intelligence
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Journal of Information Technology.2025; 40(1): 77. CrossRef
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Bibliothek Forschung und Praxis.2025; 49(2): 230. CrossRef

Training Materials

The evolution, benefits, and challenges of preprints and their interaction with journals: Pippa Smart; Sci Ed. 2022;9(1):79-84. Published online February 20, 2022; DOI: https://doi.org/10.6087/kcse.269

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19 Web of Science
29 Crossref

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