Dramatic Growth of Open Access: Update, and 2006 Predictions

I've just published my Dec. 31, 2005 update of The Dramatic Growth of Open Access, along with my predictions for 2006.

In brief, many areas of OA are continuing to show extremely rapid growth - about 40% in less than a year for DOAJ and institutional repositories listed in OAIster, for example. Other areas, such as articles included in an OAIster search, are showing a slightly lower growth rate, still more than 25% in less than a year, however.

For 2006, my predictions are continuing high growth in open access journals and repositories, with the growth rate for articles accelerating later in 2006 when the impact of mandates and increased awareness begins to be felt.