Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Date of this Version
2021
Document Type
Article
Abstract
This paper aims to investigate the present status of open access (OA) scholarly communication from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) countries from 2011 to 2020 and compare their performance in terms of scholarly communication. Articles contributed by the scholars of BRICS countries, the data collected from Scopus database. The retrieved results are limited to the “all open access, Publisher full Gold OA, Publisher Hybrid Gold OA, Publisher Free to read Bronze OA and repository Green OA”, “articles” published in the “English language” from 2011 to 2020. Total 13,943,979 papers published from BRICS countries, out of which 1578902 articles published in Open Access sources. Brazil has published the highest number of OA publications (21%) regarding its total Publications. China has the highest contribution (65%) in OA publications in comparison to other BRICS countries. Although, there has been a constant growth in OA publications in BRICS countries from 66,481 in 2011 to 280,150 in 2020. China has the highest publications in all open access models. Brazil, India and South Africa have contributed more OA publications in Medicine discipline than other disciplines. The PLOS One open access scientific journal is at the top with 43,532 OA publications from Brazil, China and South Africa. This paper also includes the ranking of institutions of BRICS countries based on their OA publications from 2016 to 2019, i.e. CWTS Leiden Ranking 2021. The study is limited to BRICS countries and may increase the awareness of OA publications from BRICS countries.