The open-access, pre-print, Social Science Research Network is extending citation services-it is not as altruistic as it sounds
SSRN announces an updated function, which reports where papers it presents are cited in research published on the network and elsewhere. “As SSRN has grown, we have recognised the need to adapt our citations management so that we can more quickly and accurately meet the increasing rate of submissions to our site.”
It’s not quite the unqualified advance for open access it appears. SSRN was bought in 2016 by RELX, which also owns for-profit publisher Elsevier. The journal giant is reducing its reliance on long-standing pay to read and newer pay to publish models, by increasing its data-analytic and research services. The more research information in the Elsevier universe the longer it prospers.