(Press-News.org) Since the World Wide Web emerged in the mid 1990s scientists have dreamed of having the whole body of scientific peer reviewed literature freely available on the web, openly available without any hindrance. In the "Open Access" scenario each published article is just one mouse-click away from any reader worldwide, a model which is in sharp contrast to the established subscription system (whereby access is only provided to those people who are able to pay for an annual subscription), 'Open Access' removes any barriers to what many believe should be publicly available material and in addition, provides for full use and re-use of the published output (hence facilitating developments such as data mining of knowledge discovery).
Slowly but steadily Open Access (OA) to peer reviewed journal articles has increased, due to the emergence of over 6,000 open access journals; pressure from research funders such as the NIH; and a growing awareness among scholars of the advantages of publishing in OA journals. A number of specialized OA publishers such as the Public Library of Science (the publisher of this article), BioMedCentral, and Hindawi have entered the market and more traditional publishers have also begun to offer OA alternatives.
A study published today in the open access journal PLoS ONE reports on the rapid growth of Open Access publishing since the start of the World Wide Web. The study was conducted by a team of researchers from the HANKEN School of Economics. The results show a very rapid growth of OA publishing during the period of 1993-2009. In 2009 an estimated 191, 000 articles were published in 4,769 OA journals. Since the year 2000, the average annual growth rate has been 18 % for the number of OA journals and 30 % for the number of OA articles. This can be contrasted to the reported 3.5 % yearly increase in the total number of peer reviewed journals. It was estimated that in 2009, articles in OA journals reached 7.7 % of all peer reviewed journal articles.
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For more information consult the full article at:
The Development of Open Access Journal Publishing from 1993 to 2009 (2011) Laakso, M., Welling, P., Bukvova, H., Nyman, L., Björk, B., & Hedlund, T. PLoS ONE http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0020961
Funding: The authors have no support or funding to report.
Competing Interests: PLoS, the publisher of this article is an Open Access publisher of 7 journals. However, PLoS had no influence in the decision to publish this article (which was accepted via an editorially independent peer review process administered by the named Academic Editor).
Disclaimer:
This press release refers to upcoming articles in PLoS ONE. The releases have been provided by the article authors and/or journal staff. Any opinions expressed in these are the personal views of the contributors, and do not necessarily represent the views or policies of PLoS. PLoS expressly disclaims any and all warranties and liability in connection with the information found in the release and article and your use of such information.
About PLoS ONE
PLoS ONE is the first journal of primary research from all areas of science to employ a combination of peer review and post-publication rating and commenting, to maximize the impact of every report it publishes. PLoS ONE is published by the Public Library of Science (PLoS), the open-access publisher whose goal is to make the world's scientific and medical literature a public resource.
10-fold increase in Open Access publishing during the last decade
2011-06-14
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