Approaches to Open Access in Scientific Publishing

TL;DR

This paper discusses different approaches to achieving open access in scientific publishing, highlighting the coexistence of repositories and journals, and questioning the effectiveness of fee-based models for maintaining quality.

Contribution

It provides an analysis of open access models, emphasizing the success of repository-based access and critically examining fee-based journal models.

Findings

Preprint repositories like arXiv enable effective open access in physics.

Fee-based journal models may conflict with quality standards.

Open Access can coexist with traditional subscription models.

Abstract

Approaches to scientific journal publishing that provide free access to all readers are challenging the standard subscription-based model. But in domains that have a well-functioning system of publicly accessible preprint repositories like arXiv, Open Access is already effectively available. In physics, such repositories have long coexisted constructively with refereed, subscription based journals. Trying to replace this by a system based on journals whose revenue is derived primarily from fees charged to authors is unlikely to provide a better guarantee of Open Access, and may be in conflict with the maintenance of high quality standards.