8 December 2020
In its report ($$) –Open Access Book Publishing 2020-2024 – Simba reports on an open access book market that declined for the first time since tracking was initiated in 2013. It concludes that title output declined 18.7% in 2019 with 2,801 open access books published against 3,445 in 2018, according to titles listed by publication year in the Directory of Open Access Books.
Simba Information projects OA book revenue will continue to fall due to the coronavirus pandemic. The economic impact of lockdowns and travel restrictions along with changes in research funding priorities will further reduce title output. Simba forecasts negative effects continue into 2021. The coronavirus pandemic has impacted the ability of academics to conduct research. The economic impact will trickle down and put pressure on funders ability to pay book publishing charges (BPCs) and various funding other mechanisms used to publishing open access books.
Simba’s forecasts the recovery for open access books will begin in 2022 with steady growth continuing through the end of the forecast in 2024.
Title output declined in 2019—a year when the global economy was healthy—indicating that enthusiasm for open access book projects and available resources for this type of publishing can fluctuate more than other segments of scholarly publishing. Still, open access book revenue grew at a compound annual rate of 21.4% from 2015 to 2019. The market remains small—a mere 0.4% of global scholarly book publishing.
Even without the worldwide COVID-19 breakout, the open access book market was facing forces that would constrain growth. Besides, in the opening of large new markets like China, India and Brazil, there is only so much research being done. Funders are increasingly paying BPCs, but there is no great increase in funding behind the research itself. This suggests a slowing of growth in aggregate as the industry begins to mature. Growth of more than 20% cannot continue if the underlying research is flat or growing less than 3% per year.