BISG Releases White Paper on Open Access Ebook Usage - Book Industry Study Group

"The Book Industry Study Group (BISG) has published a white paper on “Exploring Open Access Ebook Usage”. The paper, co-authored by Brian O’Leary (BISG) and Kevin Hawkins (University of North Texas), is the product of an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation-funded project, “Understanding Open Access Ebook Usage: Toward A Common Framework.”

The white paper summarizes current practices in tracking usage of open-access (OA) monographs, whose stakeholders include authors, publishers, funders, vendors, libraries, and readers. To serve the needs of this wide-ranging set of stakeholders, the paper recommends establishing a “data trust” to help manage and understand OA ebook usage.

The paper also recommends further work to:

1. Define the governance and architecture of the data trust
2. Create a pilot service that implements the defined governance and architecture
3. Use relevant open-source technologies that support open OA usage tracking
4. Develop personas and use cases that demonstrates who benefits from OA usage data
5. Build engagement across multiple markets
6. Better document the supply chain for OA monographs..."