Continuing our theme of Open Access this week, today’s post is about the business model of open access.
Open Access (OA) is a fundamental shift in the business model of scholarly journals. Instead of charging (individuals and libraries) for the privilege of reading content, OA journals sometimes shift those costs to authors to cover production costs. But 70 per cent of OA journals do not charge author processing fees; these journals are often hosted through the in-kind contribution of an affiliated library or institution on an Open Journal System.
There are many quality OA journals that do not charge author fees, such as:
• Theory and Applications of Categories (hosted at Mount Allison)
• Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy
• Acta Palaeontologica Polonica
• Journal of Machine Learning Research
There is really only one kind of Open Access and this is called Gold OA. Gold OA journals (with or without author fees) allow immediate public access to the published journal content. A slight variation on this level of access is called Green OA. Green OA journals allow authors to immediately archive their article in the author’s institutional repository.
Check out our infographic that illustrates the costs associated with the traditional publishing business model:
