Abstract

Purpose: This study conducts a comprehensive bibliometric analysis to map the evolution, thematic focus, and geographical dissemination of the global Open Access (OA) movement. Methods: A bibliometric analysis was performed using data from the Factiva database (1973 to mid-2022), encompassing over 20,000 publications from academic journals, news media, magazines, and trade publications. Results: Analysis reveals a dominant and growing engagement with OA in academic literature, led by publishers like IEEE and Springer Nature, with primary thematic focus on engineering, library science, and scholarly publishing. English is the predominant language (>95% of publications), indicating a significant linguistic imbalance. Geographically, contributions are concentrated in the United States and the United Kingdom, though rising output from India, China, and Nigeria suggests gradual diversification. A comparative period analysis (pre-COVID 2017- 2019 vs. 2018-2022) shows a marked acceleration in OA discussions post-2018, with emerging themes including altmetrics, Plan S, and COVID-19. Conclusion: While OA has achieved mainstream status in scholarly communication, persistent inequities in language and geographical representation highlight the need for targeted interventions to foster a truly global and inclusive knowledge commons.

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