Access models and citation impact across disciplines in Ukrainian scholarly publishing before and during Russia’s full-scale war (2020-2023)

Abstract This study has a two-fold aim. First, using Ukraine as a case study, it examines the relationship between access models and citation impact across disciplines. Second, it explores how Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine has affected access models and citation impact of articles authored by Ukrainian scholars. The analysis focuses on articles in Scopus-indexed journals in the 2020–23 period, covering 2 years before and 2 years during Russia’s full-scale invasion. Findings show that open access (OA) prevailed across all disciplines, with a slight increase during the study period. In 2023, the share of OA articles ranged from 57.9% in chemistry to 98.4% in multidisciplinary research. In 2022–23, access models and the proportion of articles published in Ukrainian and foreign journals diverged notably, influenced by war-related constraints and international support. The share of articles in Ukrainian Scopus-indexed journals increased in most disciplines, peaking at 49.1% in medicine and clinical sciences. In the total research output, Gold OA remained the leading access model in most disciplines throughout the study period. However, Diamond OA prevailed in arts and humanities, psychology, and physics and astronomy, and gained dominance in the social sciences and earth and planetary sciences in 2023. Gold OA also remained prevalent in foreign journals across most disciplines but its share declined during war years; in a few disciplines, it increased. Across all disciplines and during both periods, articles in hybrid journals had the highest citation impact, primarily due to Hybrid Gold OA, as well as Bronze and Green OA, and partially closed-access articles in hybrid journals.