Production of academic books in Colombia between 2013 and 2019: a step forward in comparative studies

This paper aims to identify and analyze academic books production in Colombia between 2013 and 2019. For doing this takes as resource the ISBN database managed by the Colombian Book Chamber and selects the academic production properly within the general publishing universe and through the subjects. Thus, based on the information required by the book trade organization in Colombia and supplied by the publishers themselves, the proposed criteria will allow characterizing the production of books in the country. It is the first characterization of this type done in Colombia. It is remarkable that according to the used methodology, the group of academic books makes up 67% of the total recorded book production. The subjects in which more academic books are published are Sociology (15%), Economics (12%), and Law (10%). Regarding the origin of the publications, it should be recognized that university publishers play a fundamental role. The group of academic books is also analyzed to determine whether these are translations or not. This contribution is the pilot study to consolidate criteria for carrying out comparative studies about the production of academic books in Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries.