  This chapter focuses on the analysis of current publication trends in gold
Open Access (OA). The purpose of the chapter is to develop a full understanding
on country patterns, OA journals characteristics and citation differences
between gold OA and non-gold OA publications. For this, we will first review
current literature regarding Open Access and its relation with its so-called
citation advantage. Starting with a chronological perspective we will describe
its development, how different countries are promoting OA publishing, and its
effects on the journal publishing industry. We will deepen the analysis by
investigating the research output produced by different units of analysis.
First, we will focus on the production of countries with a special emphasis on
citation and disciplinary differences. A point of interest will be
identification of national idiosyncrasies and the relation between OA
publication and research of local interest. This will lead to our second unit
of analysis, OA journals indexed in Web of Science. Here we will deepen on
journals characteristics and publisher types to clearly identify factors which
may affect citation differences between OA and traditional journals which may
not necessarily be derived from the OA factor. Gold OA publishing is being
encouraged in many countries as opposed to Green OA. This chapter aims at fully
understanding how it affects researchers' publication patterns and whether it
ensures an alleged citation advantage as opposed to non-gold OA publications.
