Open Access Journal Publishing 2020-2024


Attention: There is an updated edition available for this report.

Open Access Journal Publishing 2018-2022

Open access is the online digital delivery of scholarly journal articles free of charge to the reader and without most copyright and licensing restrictions. Open access publishing came as a response to rising prices for scholarly journals and the resulting pressure placed on academic library budgets. Publishers, libraries, and funders are experimenting with various fee and payment models to better serve their respective interests, enabled by developments in technology.

This report provides an overview and financial outlook for the global open access journal publishing market based on specific research and analysis of the leading competitors’ performance through 2020 and market performance through 2024.

Major industry trends are identified, including recent merger and acquisition activity. Ten leading open access journal publishers are identified, analyzed and ranked by estimated open access revenue. The report concludes with estimated market sales for 2020 and projections through 2024.

This research was conducted in conjunction with a larger study of the overall market for professional publishing, including legal and business publishing, the results of which are available in the associated reports:

  • Scholarly & Professional E-Book Publishing 2018-2022;
  • Open Access Journal Publishing 2018-2022;
  • Open Access Book Publishing 2018-2022;
  • Publishing For The Mobile Professional 2018-2021;
  • Global Social Science & Humanities Publishing 2018-2022;
  • Global Medical Publishing 2019-2023;
  • Global Scientific & Technical Publishing 2019-2023.
  • STM Online Services 2019-2023


  • Methodology
    • Definition of Open Access Journal Publishing
    • Scope of the Report
    • Sources of Information
    • Methodology for Projecting/Estimating Results
  • Executive Summary
    • Introduction
    • What is Open Access Publishing?
    • Key Facts & Trends
      • Author Processing Fees Account for 2019 Sales of $639 Million
      • Open Access Journal Have 5% Share, Center of Conversation
      • Millions of Open Access Articles Published, Growing 10% Per Annum
      • Research & Development Spending Maintains Strong Outlook
      • Non-Open Access Journals Garner Slightly More Citations Per Paper
  • Open Access Journal Market
    • Introduction
    • Key Developments in Open Access
      • Internet, Economics Launch Open Access Movement
      • Plan S Takes Aim at Hybrid Journal Model
      • Trump Considers U.S. Open Access Policy Shake Up
    • Open Access Definitions and Publishing Models
      • Open Access Journals
      • Gold
      • Green
      • Hybrid
      • Megajournals
      • Article Processing Charges (APCs)
      • Institutional Memberships
    • The Open Access Ecosystem
      • Public Funding Agencies
      • National Institutes of Health
      • European Research Council
      • Research Councils UK
      • The Wellcome Trust
      • Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI)
      • Institutional Mandates
    • Market Size
      • Table Open Access Journal Market by Metric, 2017-2019
      • Table Research Outputs on Science Direct, 2016-2019
      • APC Journal Revenue
      • Direct Support
      • Premium Services
      • Memberships
      • Offset Agreements: Springer Strikes it Big with University of California
        • Table Largest Transformative Agreements by Number of Publications Covered
      • Other Measures of Market Size
    • Open Access by Discipline
      • Medical & Biosciences
      • Scientific & Technical
      • Social Science and Humanities (SSH)
    • Open Access Publishing by Geography
      • North America
      • Europe
      • Asia-Pacific
      • Rest of the World
      • Language
  • Leading Open Access Journal Publishers
    • Introduction
    • Leading Open Access Journal Publishers
    • Springer Nature
      • Company Overview
        • Table Most Cited Journals, 2018
      • Recent Company Performance
      • Open Access Strategy
        • Table Most Active Peer Reviewed Open Access Journal Titles
        • Table Leading Open Access Journal Publishers' Revenue1, 2017-2019
    • Elsevier
      • Company Overview
      • Recent Company Performance
        • Table Leading Research Funders' Top Publisher by Articles Funded, 2019
      • Open Access Strategy
    • John Wiley & Sons
      • Company Overview
      • Recent Company Performance
      • Open Access Strategy
        • Table Open Access Journals Leading Citations in Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine, 2018
    • Frontiers
      • Company Overview
      • Recent Company Performance
        • Table Leading Publishers by Average Citations
      • Open Access Strategy
        • Table Open Access Journals Leading Citations in Microbiology, 2018
    • MDPI AG
      • Company Overview
      • Recent Company Performance
      • Open Access Strategy
    • Public Library of Science (PLOS)
      • Company Overview
        • Table PLOS ONE is Leading Journal Publishing Research From 3 U.S. Federal Agencies, 2019
      • Recent Company Performance
      • Open Access Strategy
    • Hindawi
      • Company Overview
        • Table Leading Open Access Publisher by Title Count Key Subjects
      • Recent Company Performance
      • Open Access Strategy
    • Informa PLC
      • Company Overview
      • Recent Company Performance
      • Open Access Strategy
    • Wolters Kluwer
      • Company Overview
      • Recent Company Performance
      • Open Access Strategy
        • Table Leading Open Access Publishing by Title Count Medicine & Health
    • Thieme
      • Company Overview
      • Recent Company Performance
      • Open Access Strategy
    • Other Notable Publishers
      • De Gruyter
      • SAGE Publications
        • Table Leading Publishers by Titles in the Directory of Open Journals
      • Copernicus
    • Mergers & Acquisitions in the OA Journal Market
      • Table OA Journal Publishing M&A Activity, 2016-2020
  • Trends & Forecast
    • Introduction
    • Trends in Open Access Publishing
      • Pandemic to Accelerate Open Access Transition
      • Research & Development Spending Maintains Strong Outlook
        • Table Research & Development Spending Forecast by Country, 2020-2024
      • Research Flows from Funders to Publishers
        • Table Leading Research Funders Growth in Articles Funded, 2018-2019
        • Table Leading Research Funders by Journal Publishing Most Funded Articles, 2019
      • Non-Open Access Journals Garner Slightly More Citations Per Paper
      • Peer Review Most Prevalent in Open Access Journals
    • Open Access Publishing Forecast
      • V-Shaped Outlook for Global Economy
        • Table World GDP Projected Growth by Region 2020-2024
      • Market Forecast
        • Table Open Access Journal Forecast by Metric, 2020-2024
        • Table Leading OA Journal Publishers Forecast, 2019-2020P
      • Forecast Leading Publishers

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