From: Frances Pinter <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thu, 2 Nov 2017 22:35:32 +0000


Exploring Usage of Open Access Books
*KU Research Press Release* 2 November 2017


*Exploring Usage of Open Access Books Via the JSTOR Platform *

*By Lucy Montgomery, Neil Saunders, Frances Pinter & Alkim Ozaygen*
*Report Sponsors*: UCL Press, University of Michigan Press, Cornell
University Press, University of California Press

*This report is the outcome of research* commissioned and funded by four
presses. It engages with usage data made available by JSTOR relating to OA
books in order to assist publishers in understanding how their OA content
is being used; inform strategic decision making by individual presses in
the future; and shed light on the potential for data relating to the uses
of OA books to support the potential of open access books to reach wide
audiences.

More broadly this study will be of interest to librarians and research
funders. It shows in depth the patterns of usage of OA books that are
emerging, especially at the chapter level.

Amongst the conclusions this study shows that more so than journals, the
book business has been driven by intermediaries throughout its history.
Even in the transition to ebooks intermediaries continue to be important in
the widespread distribution of book content. Thus, having book content
available through the full range of discovery outlets is critical to
ensuring access to research communities.

The high proportion of readers originating in North America and already on
the JSTOR platform when they access the books examined in this study hints
at the continued importance of multiple distribution pathways for OA books
as a mechanism for ensuring that the key outputs of the Humanities and
Social Sciences make their way beyond academia. Encouraging are the hints
that users at institutions who might not otherwise afford access to
publishers’ books (remembering that JSTOR customers subscribe to a wide
range of different journal and book collections) are using OA books. These
appear to include high schools and community colleges.

[image: JSTOR]* JSTOR Report*
<http://www.kuresearch.org/PDF/jstor_report.pdf>