Does #OpenAccess increase readership?

From the "I Wish I Did This Study" department.  Philip Davis and the American Physiological Society completed an RCT of the open-access publication model. All articles published in 11 APS journals between January and April 2007 were randomized into immediate free access (n=247) or normal subscription-only access for the first 12 months (n=1372). So did it work? Yes - far more downloads, same number of citations.

Article downloads: One-year after publication, open access articles received twice the number of full-text downloads and 61% more PDF downloads with more unique visitors. Fewer looked at the abstract with open-access, but why would they when they can read the whole thing? (see figure below)

Citations: Open-access articles were cited in similar numbers.  During the first year, 71% of open-access and 74% of subscription articles were cited at least once. At three years, citations averaged 10.6 per open-access and 10.7 per subscription-based article.

My only question. Why was this published in a newsletter and not a peer-reviewed journal?

Reference: PM Davis. Physiologist. 2010 Dec;53(6):197, 200-1.

Yes, I know this discussion isn't specific to infection prevention, but it is a "controversy" so I'm at least partially sticking to our mission. (insert emoticon)

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