ESO DOI Service

• Grothkopf, Uta [European Southern Observatory (ESO)]
• Meakins, Silvia [European Southern Observatory (ESO)]

This table presents a schematic overview of the most common journal publishing models 2024, focusing on the various Open Access (OA) concepts. It is intended for librarians and researchers, providing a structured approach to help navigate the diverse landscape of existing publishing models.

In order to describe equitable Open Access, the following three areas were identified:

1. Reading: Is immediate global read-access to the OA content available? Immediate, unrestricted, online access to peer-reviewed scholarly papers without financial, organisational, legal, or technical barriers is one of the core principles of Open Access. 
2. Publishing: Does the model provide global OA publishing without fees per article (Article Processing Charge, APC)? “Global” indicates that publishing is available for all authors without author-facing charges, not only those for whom a specific fee or membership has been paid. The absence of fees per article reduces risks arising from quantity-driven publishing which may tempt publishers to lower quality standards and apply less strict peer-review with the aim of publishing more articles to increase revenue. 
3. Re-use: Is the OA content governed by open licenses (such as CC-BY)? Open licenses respect authors’ rights and ensure proper attribution, but also ascertain that other researchers can re-use, distribute, and build upon research output for the benefit of society at large.

For the following publishing models, these questions are answered, along with an indication whether or not established publishers are involved in producing the article's Version of Record (VOR): 

• Closed access
  

  Closed access (subscription) is the traditional model of access to journal content. Global read-access, global OA publishing without fees per article, and re-use rights are not available.

  The model involves established publishers to publish the VOR. (For so-called hybrid journals, see the APC-based model.) 

• Article Processing Charges (APCs)
  

  Often also called “Gold OA”. Authors (or their funders / institutions) pay a publisher-defined fee in order to publish.

  Article Processing Charges achieve global read-access and re-use rights, but OA publishing is only possible for paying authors/institutions. The model involves established publishers to publish the VOR. 

• Read & Publish (RAP) / Publish & Read (PAR) Agreements
  

  RAP / PAR contracts are based on an institution’s subscriptions along with the estimated amount of OA articles. Often the agreements cover only a limited (“capped”) number of OA articles and only refer to selected journals. RAP / PAR contracts typically originate from so-called Transformative Agreements.

  Read & Publish / Publish & Read Agreements achieve global read-access and re-use rights, but OA publishing is only possible for authors of participating institutions. The model involves established publishers to publish the VOR. 

• Community-driven OA
  

  Community-driven Open Access can take many forms. Two examples are overlay journals and community-led publishing services. Overlay journals deploy existing eprint servers and combine them with a refereeing system. An example of community-led publishing services is the Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO).

  Community-driven OA achieves achieves global read-access and re-use rights as well as — in most cases — global OA publishing without fees per articles. Overlay journals may, but in reality usually do not, apply author-facing fees. Typically, the models do not involve established publishers to publish the VOR. 

• Collaborative OA
  

  There are many examples of collaborative Open Access, including for instance conditional models such as Subscribe to Open (S2O) or crowdfunding where content is only published openly if specific requirements are met, as well as SCOAP3, the CERN-led Sponsoring Consortium for Open Access Publishing in Particle Physics.

  Collaborative OA achieves global read-access, global OA publishing without fees per articles, and re-use rights. Typically, the models involve established publishers to publish the VOR. 

• Membership / flat fee model
  

  Under a membership or flat fee OA model, arising fees are covered by institutions, consortia, libraries, individual researchers, or other stakeholders in scholarly publishing.

  Membership / flat fee OA models achieve global read-access and re-use rights, but OA publishing without fees per article is only available for members. Some membership models involve established publishers to publish the VOR, while others don’t.

All above-mentioned models refer to the published article (Version of Record).

• Rights Retention Strategy

  The Rights Retention Strategy (RRS) refers to the refereed (peer-reviewed) version of the manuscript, the so-called Author-Accepted Manuscript (AAM), not to the final published version. The AAM is typically self-archived in trusted repositories. While this model is increasingly adopted by funders and research organisations, it relies on peer-review taking place elsewhere, often at the journal where the authors decided to publish the article's Version of Record. Publishers shall be informed about the RRS, either by the authors themselves or via an existing institutional RR policy. Depending on the journal, the VOR will be published closed or Open Access.

  The Rights Retention Strategy achieves global read-access, global OA publishing without fees per manuscript, and re-use rights. The model does not involve established publishers to publish the VOR.

The table does not include any preliminary or temporary Open Access models, such as delayed/embargoed OA, read-access to newest articles of a given publisher for a limited time, or self-archiving of unrefereed manuscripts by authors (“Green OA”) as these models do not lead to permanent global read-access of peer-reviewed content.

The Journal Publishing Models 2024 overview is a revised and enhanced version of the Overview of Publication Business Models, published in 2021 (DOI 10.18727/docs/10).