Open access uptake: Five years on

June 10, 2010 - PRLog -- Through the Oxford Open initiative, launched in July 2005, Oxford University Press (OUP) has experimented with open access models and has been carefully monitoring and sharing results. Today, over 90 Oxford journals are hybrid open access and six are fully open access.

In 2009 the average uptake of the open access option for participating journals fell to 5.9%, compared with 6.7% in 2008. This reduction was due to a lower uptake amongst 11 new titles joining Oxford Open in 2009. On a like-for-like basis, the average uptake in 2009 for journals which entered the scheme prior to 2008 was stable (6.7%, compared with 6.8% in 2008).  

Based on titles included in Oxford Open prior to 2008, by broad subject area the highest uptake continues to be in the Life Sciences (11.4% compared with 11.2% in 2008). However, there was substantial variation between individual titles; for example, Bioinformatics (31%) and HMG (20%) have seen continued growth, whilst some other life science titles have seen a reduction of 5%-10%. Medical titles have declined from 5.0% to 4.6%, whilst Humanities, Social Science, and Law continue to have a much lower uptake (2.5%). At 8.2%, Mathematics was the second largest uptake, an increase compared with 2008 (6.8%).

“These results indicate that, when given the option, most authors are not yet choosing to publish their research articles under an open access model,” commented Martin Richardson, Managing Director of OUP’s Academic and Journals Divisions.  

Table: 2008–2009 Uptake for Journals which joined Oxford Open January 2008 or earlier [http://www.oxfordjournals.org/news/open_access_table.jpg]

For more information, please contact:

Rhodri Jackson
rhodri.jackson@oxfordjournals.org
Editorial Assistant
Academic and Journals Divisions
Oxford University Press
+44 (0)1865 353510

Catarina Walsh
catarina.walsh@oup.com
Senior Communication Manager
Academic and Journals Divisions
Oxford University Press
+44 (0)1865 354206

Notes to editors
Oxford Journals, a Division of OUP, publishes over 230 journals covering a broad range of subject areas, two-thirds of which are published in collaboration with learned societies and other international organizations. The collection contains some of the world's most prestigious titles, including Nucleic Acids Research, JNCI (Journal of the National Cancer Institute), Brain, Human Reproduction, English Historical Review, and the Review of Financial Studies.

Oxford University Press, a department of the University of Oxford, furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. The world's largest and most international university press, Oxford University Press currently publishes more than 6,000 new publications per year, has offices in around fifty countries, and employs some 5,000 people worldwide. It has become familiar to millions through a diverse publishing programme that includes scholarly works in all academic disciplines, bibles, music, school and college textbooks, children's books, materials for teaching English as a foreign language, business books, dictionaries and reference books, and journals.

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Oxford University Press, a department of the University of Oxford, furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide.