Published 8 September 2020

How can I measure impact for open access books?

Many open access book publishers and platforms provide information about how often books are downloaded and cited, as well as the countries from which the books are accessed. It is increasingly possible to see how often books are mentioned on social media, in book reviews, news articles, or on Wikipedia (sometimes referred to as alternative metrics or ‘altmetrics’). Both commercial and community-owned open source tools and services are increasingly available to help publishers and authors make the most of this data and achieve their goals. Usage statistics can also help you to gain a better understanding of the communities engaging with your work.

You should consider what you are hoping to achieve through the publication of your book and ask your publisher about the kinds of usage data which will be available to them, as well as how they plan to share this information with you.

The following toolkit article(s) address(es) this question:

Impact of publishing an open access book

Last edited on 8 September 2020, at 12:48 (+0000)