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An Open Access Primer – Market Size and Trends

Image of Daniel Pollock

Author: Daniel Pollock, Vice President & Lead Analyst

Open access has attracted much attention and passionate debate in the STM world, and the subject remains full of contradictions. This report takes an objective look at open access and cuts through the confusion. It provides a primer about open access from the ground up, from defining the basics to analyzing the key drivers. It then sizes the open access market by providing a comprehensive, neutral survey of data sources, critically appraising them, and building out clear measures of adoption. Finally, it looks ahead, projecting the financial effects of a transition to open access under a number of scenarios and offering practical advice for managing the change that open access represents. The report contains:

- A primer about open access, from basic definition of the scholarly publishing process through to the different types and nuances of open access;
- Analysis of market drivers and inhibitors for open access;
- Outsell data and analysis sizing the open access market;
- Essential actions for publishers and information providers affected by the open access publishing model.


Pub Date: September 21, 2009
Type: Market Report
Segment: STM
Keywords: STM Publishing, Journals, Open access
Pages: 46
Format: PDF Application_pdf

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Table of Contents

  • Why This Topic?
  • Market Definitions and Methodology
    1. Defining the STM Scholarly Process
    2. Defining Open Access
  • Market Drivers
    1. Drivers
    2. Inhibitors
  • Market Sizing
    1. Uptake of Open Access
    2. Market Sizing
    3. Market Potential
  • In Outsell's Opinion
  • Essential Actions
  • Related Research

    • Tables & Figures

  • Figure 1. The Process of Science
  • Figure 2. The Scholarly Publishing Process
  • Figure 3. Open Access: Moving the Toll Booth
  • Figure 4. US Library Spending, R&D Spending, and Journals Relative to 1995
  • Figure 5. Manuscript Submissions to PubMed Central
  • Table 1. Preliminary DOAJ Analysis
  • Table 2. Number of Fully Open Access Scholarly Journals
  • Figure 6. Analysis of Penetration of Peer Reviewed OA Titles
  • Figure 7. Subject Coverage of Journals (All Subjects)
  • Figure 8. Subject Coverage of Journals (STM)
  • Figure 9. Coverage of OA Journals by Geographic Region, 2002-2009
  • Figure 10. Analysis of OA Titles by Geographic Region and Impact Factor, 2004
  • Table 3. Take-up of Hybrid OA Options in 2008
  • Table 4. Data Points for Average Articles per Journal Title
  • Figure 11. Penetration of Peer Reviewed OA Articles
  • Table 5. Estimates for OA Article Penetration
  • Table 6. Calculating Average APC
  • Table 7. Effects of Wholesale Adoption of OA
  • Table 8. Baseline Assumptions for Growth Modeling
  • Figure 12. Effects of Fixed Proportions of OA Uptake
  • Figure 13. Effects of Transition to OA Uptake

Companies Mentioned

  1. Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.
  2. BioMed Central Ltd.
  3. Hindawi Publishing Corporation
  4. Nature Publishing Group
  5. Oxford University Press
  6. Public Library of Science (PLoS)
  7. Springer Science+Business Media's construction information division (partial acquisition)