In 2017, the Directory of Open Access Books marked the 10,000 titles milestone. Today, this important service lists almost 13,000 academic peer-reviewed books, monographs and chapters from 282 publishers.
Recorded at 2018 Frankfurt Book Fair
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Open access is transforming scholarly journal publishing, yet the looming size of the journal ecosystem has thrown into deep shadow an equally remarkable transformation in scholarly books. In recent years, e-book acquisition rates and usage have soared. E-books offer multiple advantages, from acquisition models to accessibility and researcher engagement metrics.
In parallel with research coming out of the UK, an ongoing study by the US-based Book Industry Study Group is identifying the challenges in understanding the usage of OA e-books. This research will provide much needed documentation on e-book impact levels, especially for funders of open access publishing programs.
At the recent 2018 Frankfurt Book Fair, CCC’s Carl Robinson moderated a panel discussion on the viability of business models and the unique needs of OA books compared to OA journals. Guests were Brian O’Leary, executive director of the New York City-based Book Industry Study Group (BISG),and David Worlock, a longtime independent publishing analyst and co-chair of Outsell’s leadership programs.
“If you actually know how a book is being used, how widely it’s being used – if you can measure the platforms and/or institutions that are prescribing it, I think that gives you a starting point for saying, ‘all right, this has a value and we should fund it and we could fund it in this way.’ That’s our game plan overall,” said O’Leary, outlining the goals of the BISG usage study on OA books.
