Traditional and Open Access Journals: New Era of Coexistence | Plain Language Science

"There is intensifying, even heated, debate across the research community as to whether the future of scholarly publishing lies in the open access (OA) model or in the traditional subscription-based format. The dissemination of scientific information has traditionally been print-based, in the form of journals made available to readers by subscription. Of course, in the digital age, all of those journals are available online but only to paying subscribers. OA publications, on the other hand, are available for free to anyone with access to the Internet, and articles may be downloaded, copied, printed, or used for any legal purpose. The question is, will the future of academic publishing veer completely toward the OA model, or will the traditional publishing framework endure as the dominating force in scholarly communication? The answer seems to be a combination of the two. The fundamental difference between OA and traditional publishing is in their business structure. Rather than through subscriptions, OA publishers are funded by an 'author-pays' model, where the author or funding agency supporting the research pays a publishing fee, usually anywhere between tens of dollars to several thousands. The publisher can afford then to make electronic copy of articles available for free to any reader, any time, with no copyright issues. The time to process an OA article, from acceptance to online publication, generally takes two to several months. By contrast, traditional journals are supported by subscriptions, which are typically paid from the coffers of government institutions and university libraries. Research manuscripts published in traditional journals are subject to copyright agreement (the journal holds the copyright) and are available only to those having the financial resources to pay the hefty subscription fees. The submission-to-publication process is significantly longer in the traditional system and may take many months to a year ..."