Revistas open access: características, modelos económicos y tendencias

Abstract:  Open access (OA), electronic, scientific journals have existed since the start of the Internet. Nevertheless, since the Budapest Declaration—which defined the importance of open access and described journals as key to OA—existing open access journals have begun to be identified. In addition, other journals have emerged, which use models that did not exist in the time when only printed journals were available. This paper analyses how the open access movement has affected communication methods and access to scientific output. It also looks at the consequences that OA has had on the development of the publishing sector, and on new models of journals that are not exclusively based on subscriptions.

In addition, we summarise some of the trends in electronic publication. From the perspective of the scientific community, these trends are linked to the creation of collaborative environments, data exchange and the reuse of data, among other factors. From a commercial perspective, they represent a transition from a model of content provider to that of service provider. In this context, quality and attractive prices make publishing companies more competitive.