The Open Access Book and the evolution of the OA.

The Open Access Book (OAB) is a product of the research that in recent years has gained its place in scientific publishing and Open Access (OA). Both have gone from initial diffidence (for different reasons) to a growing interest. In the first part of the article we present the most recent data relating to this type of publication (published ebooks, number of publishers, etc.) while in the second part the OAB phenomenon is examined within a more general evolution of the OA. [Publisher's text]