“Open in Action,” the theme of Open Access Week 2016, is at the core of what we do and has been from the start.

IntechOpen’s dedication in the promotion of Open Access publishing is more than a decade strong, with a goal to remove the barriers that prevent free access to scientific content. We have strived to change many mindsets by showing how Open Access is beneficial not only at a global level, but for each researcher individually. Along the way we have achieved numerous milestones together with our authors and editors, with whom and thanks to whom, we happily share every new achievement.

See a retrospective of IntechOpen's past and present milestones (click on the image to enlarge)

How do we promote Open Access?

1. Through our output and dissemination of knowledge

IntechOpen has more than 2,750 Open Access books published, which is the world’s largest Open Access book collection. This number translates to more than 40,000 chapters - openly available worldwide for other researchers to read, download, share, reuse and serve as inspiration for new, potentially groundbreaking discoveries.

2. Through our author/editor recognition and support

We have collaborated with more than 95,000 internationally based authors and editors.

All our authors and editors have their own Publishing Process Manager, a single point of contact throughout the publishing process.

We permanently host the published content, securing its discoverability and accessibility for all possible future use.

Additionally, in order to improve the access to relevant data and support data transparency, all our authors have at their disposal a list of institutions who provide funds for Open Access publications or who support Open Access publication costs as eligible budget items.

3. Through our international character

Our publications consist of research data from 154 countries across the globe. That is more than 70% of the world’s sovereign states covered.

When it comes to readership, we have that covered, as anyone with an Internet connection, from anywhere in the world, and on any device can access our book content.

4. Through the impact of our publications

Our book chapters, collectively, have been downloaded more than 88 million times. Translated to real world numbers, this would mean that every inhabitant from a country similar in size (and even larger) to Germany has downloaded content from our platform.

                 

This also means that we have more than half a million readers per month.

Given that Open Access publications have a wider impact due to their openness and accessibility, the chances of one’s work having a greater impact within the scientific community are exponentially increased. This is confirmed by citations from our indexed books in the Book Citation Index in the Web of Science™ Core Collection (BKCI).

So far we have 169 BKCI indexed books for a total of 3,345 indexed book chapters. IntechOpen books make up 43% of all Open Access books indexed in BKCI.

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Lastly, since we have asked our researchers to share with us their word associations on Open Access, we would like to share our own. Here is how the term Open Access has and continues to inspire us: