My figures illustrating the dramatic growth of open access
are
not meant to be a precise indication of the quantity of OA
items,
only a rough indicator of the growth rate. Such a precise
calculation would require more resources than is available
to me.
For example, that more than 780,000 additional records have
been
added to OAIster in the first quarter of this year,
approximately
a doubling of last year's growth rate, strongly suggests
that
open access archives are beginning to fill. However, this
is not
proof, as not all OAIster records are fulltext; some are OA
to
metadata only.
The DOAJ increase is a stronger indication of the growth of
open
access per se, as all titles are vetted to ensure that they
meet
high quality control (peer review) standards, and that they
are
fully open access (no delay period).
While the number of articles available that are OA is an
important figure, as others have pointed, the increase in OA
journals is a strong indicator of the commitment of a great
many
people around the world to open access. Even a title
starting off
small with few articles, is a journal with an editorial
board,
some form of OA business model, and peer reviewers.
Not only is DOAJ increasing in the number of titles - it
appears
to be increasing in its growth rate as well. About a year
ago,
DOAJ was adding titles at an average rate of about 1 per
day.
Now, DOAJ is adding new titles at the rate of about 2 per
day. To
see where I am getting these calculations, look up the DOAJ
new
titles at: http://www.doaj.org/new
When interpreting this data,
be sure to take into account that DOAJ is a small office.
If
there is a temporary decrease in additions to the new titles
list
over the summer, this may well reflect staff vacations.
Helpful as it would be to know the precise numbers of open
access
articles, OA implementation is far more important than
counting.
Heather G. Morrison
March 31, 2006 Dramatic Growth of Open Access
http://tinyurl.com/o7zkf
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