FUTON Bias

FUTON bias (short for Full Text On the Net bias) refers to the bias in academic research, when researchers "concentrate on research published in journals that are available as full text on the internet, and ignore relevant studies that are not available in full text, thus introducing an element of bias into their search result". As a result, articles that are available as full text on the Internet have more visibility and impact, as they are more likely to be accessed, read, quoted, and incorporated into new research. The FUTON bias may have a similar effect as publication bias or language bias.

The FUTON bias may affect the impact factor of academic journal(s).

FUTON bias may be a result of several factors:

• It may affect researchers and students with limited experience in doing research, especially those who believe everything is available fulltext on the internet.
• Few libraries in general have a full range of journals available, and if the article is available, it may be only in print or microform.
• FUTON bias tends to result in older sources getting less visibility, as they are less likely to have been digitized. Similarly, sources published in less developed countries are similarly adversely affected, as those countries tend to have fewer resources that can be spared for digitization (see digital divide).

No abstract available bias (NAA bias) is similar to FUTON bias: it occurs when an article has no abstract available online. Such articles, as well as those with unclear titles are also less likely to be accessed. Some publishers acknowledge the NAA bias by providing abstracts for editorial and letters in their journal(s) or promising to do so.

Conversely, Gilman notes that articles in expensive journals are "priced out of evidence", such that FUTON publications have higher availability and hence higher utility.