Abstract

To solve the problems of the traditional scholarly communication system, global interest in the open access paradigm continues. Nevertheless, there is still a lack of research to understand global research and growth trends in the field of open access through data-based quantitative methods. This study aims to identify which sub-fields exist in open access and analyze how long each research field will grow in the future. To this end, topic modeling and growth curve analysis were applied to global academic papers in the field of open access. This study identified 14 research topics related to open access, open data, and open collaboration, which are three key elements of open science, and foresaw that the field of open access will grow over the next 65 years. The results of this study are expected to support researchers and policymakers in understanding global research trends of open access.