IRN Research has released a new report, The European Online Information Market 2006. It's not free or even cheap (£600/€874/$1,130). From the announcement:
The latest annual survey of the European market for online information, published by leading information consultancy IRN Research, values the market at €3,513m in 2005, increasing by 14% at current prices compared to 2004. Switching of spending from traditional hard copy sources to online services is the main factor behind this growth, especially in legal, tax and regulatory (LTR) and scientific, technical and medical (STM) information markets.
Online business information is the largest market segment, accounting for 66% of total online sales in Europe in 2005, with online STM information sales contributing the remaining 34%....STM information market growth by country can vary and is complicated by the different levels of VAT levied on hard copy and online sales in each country. Open access initiatives are increasing and focusing on the development of open-access repositories....
In STM information, double-digit profit margins have been commonplace for the last few years and this trend has continued in 2005....
In STM information, academic budgets will remain weak and any growth is likely to come from new product development, and increased use amongst practitioners and scientists in non-academic sectors....
Posted by
Peter Suber at 6/13/2006 08:05:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
