Analysis and news
From robotics to Rijeka Sara Uhac reveals the motivations and challenges involved with being an open-access book publisher
In October 2016, Simba Information reported that open access (OA) books are estimated to grow 30 per cent a year, and that there are nearly 10,000 scholarly and academic open access books available on the internet today. With 2,850 STM books published since 2005, and another 490 to be published in 2017, InTechOpen alone represents one third of the worldwide market and is the world’s largest science, technology and medicine open access book publisher.
The story The InTechOpen story begins in 2004 at the University of Technology in Vienna, where two roboticists had one problem: accessing the latest research due to high costs. Their solution? To launch a journal in their field of research – one without the subscription fees they themselves could not afford. Without even knowing that giving free access to scientific content had a name, by 2011 their flagship publication would become the first open access journal in robotics with an impact factor.
Seeing a need to develop a project that
differs from traditional publishing options, in 2005, they published Cutting Edge Robotics – InTechOpen’s first OA book. By allowing the content to be accessed for free, it increased the capacity to spread knowledge within the scientific community. Our portfolio of open access peer
reviewed journals grew over the years, and in spring 2016 we announced their sale – a strategic decision to further support and accelerate growth, focus and our company’s evolution. Today, the InTechOpen book is the main product of our company. Our books take the form of edited
volumes and enable academics from all over the world to contribute their original works in the form of book chapters. The chapter format provides researchers with a medium in which they can share their latest findings in a longer form than journal papers, giving them the opportunity to
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offer a more comprehensive analysis. Given our roots in robotics, it is no surprise that physical sciences, engineering and technology represent 51 per cent of the portfolio, followed by health sciences (33 per cent) and life sciences (14 per cent). Our social sciences and humanities portfolio (two per cent) continues to expand, with 42 titles currently in various stages of pre- publication and 66 in the portfolio already. The scientific chapters are all published online under the open access model and are licensed under a Creative Commons license. Upon publication, the content is immediately made available online to be searched, shared and downloaded for free – no registration required.
Milestones – rising impact This product development direction shaped our company’s future, and by 2009 two key milestones were achieved – 100 OA books published and one million downloads reached. As natural demand for print copies of open access books rose, in 2011 free hard copies for authors and print-on-demand services were introduced. The year 2011 also brought us two incredible scientific minds: Harold Kroto, winner of the 1996
“The content is immediately made available online to be searched, shared and downloaded for free”
Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and Yoshinori Ohsumi, who would go on to win the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine and the 2017 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences. A year later, we celebrated the publication of our 1,000th book and having reached 10 million downloads. Our growth was significant and fast, but was not met without any challenges. After a rapid increase in production, where we
more than doubled in size, we decided to slow down, re-focus, and begin working on a number of key improvements. In 2015, the Book Citation Index (BKCI) in the Web of Science began indexing our books. This was crucial in increasing the visibility, connectivity and overall exposure of the published content. Today, InTechOpen titles represent 43 per cent of all OA books indexed by the BKCI. With more than 44,000 Web of Science citations, InTechOpen proves that STM book chapters do in fact generate citations. The 42,000 scientific chapters published thus far have been downloaded more than 91 million times, moving at a rate of 55,000 downloads per day. With the upcoming publication of the 3,000th book, InTechOpen is continuously strengthening its focus on innovation and customer service, to further increase the impact of our books.
The revenue model As a gold OA publisher, to allow permanently unrestricted online access to the published works and keep the business sustainable, publishing a chapter in an edited volume requires the payment of a processing charge (APC) of 690 euros. Authors’ institutions cover 73 per cent of all paid APCs, while 27 per cent of APCs are covered by authors themselves. However, we support those authors
who cannot afford covering APCs, and in the last three years 14 per cent of chapters published were fully waived and six per cent were partially waived. We are working, among other things, on offering more affordable publishing options and increasing author awareness of governmental, institutional and research funders’ policies mandating research publications to be freely and publicly accessible. An important goal was achieved in 2016 when The European Commission confirmed that InTechOpen’s publishing standards meet eligibility for funding under the FP7 Pilot.
The role of technology A key resource for our company is represented by the approach in understanding the role technology plays in
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