Numbers that tell a story: Measuring the impact of open access books (Munin Conference poster)

Abstract: Open access book publishing is gaining momentum, with more than 12,000 titles published worldwide, available from the Directory of Open Access Books. But compared to the overall number of academic books that are produced, this is still a small percentage, representing <1% of total scholarly and professional e-book output worldwide. With much research on the benefits to society from open access publication, what can we do to encourage more book authors to choose open access?

Springer Nature is a leading academic book publisher – to date, we have published more than 600 open access books since launching OA book options in 2012. Feedback from our OA book authors has shown that metrics are important to them, as the data helps demonstrate the impact of their research to funders, and also supports conversations with their institutions for career progression. However, as highlighted in our white paper ‘The OA effect: How does open access affect the usage of scholarly books?’, some authors feel that there is a lack of information around metrics and book performance. This information may be critically important in helping authors consider the benefits of choosing to publish their book open access.