Production, distribution, and use of open access digital books in the Social Sciences and Humanities field: A systematized literature review

ABSTRACT

Introduction:

Scholarly communication in social sciences and humanities has developed through monographic publications. In recent decades, electronic books have become prominent for communication in these areas.

Objective:

Given the importance of creating a more democratic science and the consolidation and advances of open access presented in recent times, this research identifies the current state of scientific knowledge on the production, distribution, and use of open access electronic books in the social sciences and humanities.

Methodology:

Based on a qualitative methodological approach, the study used the systematic literature review (SLR) method with the library and information science abstracts (LISA) and the Scopus databases, which has international recognition within the areas of information science, social sciences and humanities.

Results:

Forty two articles that discussed the analyzed themes were verified based on the defined SLR protocols and StArt tool.

Conclusions:

It was concluded that the social sciences and humanities area has been using open access digital books in its research, and academic libraries and university press are the main actors in their distribution. Moreover, some technological, social, economic obstacles persist in the use and production of studies on the subject owing to its reduced importance compared to research on open access journals in various other areas of knowledge.

KEYWORDS:
Scholarly communication; Open access; Electronic book; Academic library