Open Access Publishing Trends for 2022: Growth Is Set To Continue

 [Approximate Reading Time : 4 mins]

Open access publishing arose around the turn of the century as university libraries found themselves no longer able to keep up with the rising costs of subscriptions to scholarly publications. Since its emergence, OA publishing has seen continued growth, and the trend is expected to continue in 2022. Here are four predictions for open access publishing trends heading into this coming year.

1. Open Access Continues To Increase Its Share of the Global Scholarly Publishing Market

Though open access is not yet the norm in scholarly and research publishing, its market share continues to increase. As 2021 comes to a close, nearly 7 million articles are published in open access journals and more than 12,000 OA journals do not use the author-paid content model. An estimated 30% of all scholarly articles are available for free to anyone.

2. More Traditional Academic Journals Make the Switch to OA

As the demand for free academic and scholarly content increases, changes in journal publishing are set to rise. Traditional scholarly journals are making the move to the open access publishing model. One prominent and notable journal is the American Astronomical Society’s publication, but there are others, including:

• The Society for Laboratory and Screening’s Discovery and Technology journals
• The Journal of Dairy Science
• The Astronomy and Astrophysics Journal
• The European Journal of Public Health
• The Journal of Plant Ecology

Additionally, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences established an open-access sister publication to its traditional journal, called Nexus.

3. Policy Changes Boost OA Publishing

The U.S.’s major scientific funding institution, the National Science Foundation, has had an open access policy since 2016, and the U.K.’s Research and Innovation funding body is making the switch in 2022. While the NSF requires authors to make their work publicly available one year after the original publication, UKRI’s new policy requires peer-reviewed work to be available immediately upon publication. Policies such as these pave the way for continued growth in OA publishing.

4. COVID-19 Continues To Impact Open Access Publishing

The pandemic shaped much about the world in 2020 and 2021, and it looks like this will continue into 2022. Universities experienced a sharp decline in revenue and had to slash their budgets. As a result, library budgets were cut, further depleting scarce resources for journal subscriptions. Furthermore, COVID-19 demonstrated the value of making scientific research rapidly, readily and widely available. Together, these impacts served to increase demand for open access research publications.

Partner With Amnet in 2022

OA trends indicate that the future of open access continues to be promising. Through our EnableOA program, we provide technology-driven solutions in open access publishing, making it easy for you to create and distribute content. Contact us today and let us help you open your future.

Sources:
1. https://www.stm-assoc.org/2021_10_19_STM_Global_Brief_2021_Economics_and_Market_Size.pdf
2. https://doaj.org/
3. https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2016/nsf16009/nsf16009.jsp#q1
4. https://www.ukri.org/our-work/supporting-healthy-research-and-innovation-culture/open-research/open-access-policies-review/