Scholarly publishing is undergoing a major change as Open Access becomes more established and the business model of academic publishers changes to accommodate altered revenue streams. The prevailing model of the 20th century and the present relies on libraries to pay journal subscription fees, and for researchers to serve uncompensated as editors and peer reviews, in addition to writing manuscripts for submission. Open Access allows for articles to be free and open to the reader regardless of affiliated institutional access.
In the current period we, find the old subscription model and various forms of Open Access coexisting, but university and institute libraries find themselves squeezed by rising subscription fees and rising article processing fees for OA rights. Libraries have reacted to the rising expenditure on both journals and article processing fees by cutting subscriptions or, more recently, trying to negotiate read/publish agreements with publishers.
Quick facts about Open Access (OA)
Open Access by Green OA – making a version of the manuscript freely available in a repository.
Gold OA – making the final version of manuscript freely available immediately upon publication by the publisher.
Diamond OA – a form of gold open access in which there is no author fee (APC).
Gratis OA – the paper is available to read free-of-charge, though its reuse is still restricted, for example by ‘All Rights Reserved’ copyright.
Libre OA – the paper is made available under an open licence, allowing it to be shared and reused, depending on which licence is used.