Mapping the open access ecosystem

Abstract:  Open Access (OA) as a movement has been steadily gaining strength for roughly the last two decades. As this happens, new actors, policies and tools have emerged to support this movement, composing what could be seen as an Open Access Ecosystem (OAE). However, the literature is still surprisingly scarce on the elements, structure and relationships among the components of the actual OAE. For this reason, we review the literature on the subject in order to attain a proposal of what this OAE is at present. After reviewing the literature, we propose the OAE includes three main components: Actors, Technology, and Regulatory Framework. For each of these components, we define the elements included in each one of them, and give examples that emerge from the review of the literature on OA-related research. We propose that elucidating the actual OAE could support policy-makers, as well as the OA community, to better understand the complexity of the Ecosystem and define ways to improve its functioning.