The report summarises statistics on open access, outlines expenditures on scholarly publishing, and describes ongoing efforts to coordinate national initiatives and measures to promote open access.

Development in Sweden

In 2024, 76 per cent of peer-reviewed research articles were published with immediate open access. This means that over the past three years, the proportion of open access articles has not increased but rather remained at roughly the same level. The majority of these articles were published in hybrid journals, which account for approximately 55 per cent of immediate open access publishing.

National Librarian Karin Grönvall commented on the development:

"The stagnation in the number of open access research articles in Sweden and the fact that hybrid journals are not transitioning to fully open journals means we need to explore more paths to open access. This includes more researcher-driven initiatives, such as diamond open access and publishing platforms like Open Research Europe."

In connection with this report, KB has updated statistics on open access on its website. KB has also recently reported the 2024 costs of scholarly publishing at Swedish universities and colleges.

Open access to books and equity in open access

For many years, the work with open access has primarily focused on research articles. This year's report, however, particularly highlights open access to academic books. Although development in this area has been significantly slower than for articles, a positive trend can be observed over time.

The theme provides a current overview of the proportion of academic books published with open access in Sweden and describes the variety of formats available for academic books, as well as the specific conditions that shape the potential for open publication. The section concludes with an assessment and concrete recommendations aimed at promoting development and increasing the proportion of open access books in Sweden. These include prioritising diamond open access for funding openly accessible books and public actors implementing recommendations from the PALOMERA research project.

"It is essential to include books in the work for open access, as they are an important publication channel in several disciplines. The conditions for publishing academic books with open access differ from those for articles. The report highlights initiatives that can strengthen the development of open access to books," says Karin Grönvall.

The report also discusses global and national inequalities in access and opportunities for open publishing, as well as initiatives such as diamond open access, planned measures within the European Research Area, and copyright-related issues such as rights retention models and secondary publishing rights.

Read the report (in Swedish)