Subscribe to open a scientific journal innovation

Laboratory life. A movement that grows in the scientific world. Facilitate access to knowledge thanks to the free online availability of research articles by the journals that publish them. Known asOpen accessIn France, this trend would, according to another Open Science Scale, Already more than 55% of articles from the national scientific community.

But who pays for editing, printing or downloading articles, organizing peer review, marketing …? Until recently, the predominant model was simple, inclusive subscription, primarily through university libraries. However, by taking advantage of the captive customers, the largest publishers raised their prices sharply. This has led to protests, renegotiation, and even demonstrations. Therefore, the publishing market is looking for new economic models to reconcile these two imperatives. Open access And more prices are acceptable.

One of these discoveries began to break through. It’s five newspapers in 2019, nineteen in 2020, and seventy-four in 2021. Surprise, they are based on … subscription! ” Subscribe to the conquest “(Literally,” subscribe to unlock “) is already subtly proposing to change the old paradigm of libraries. If enough of them keep subscribing, the articles of the year will be free for all readers. If this limit is not reached, the cost of access will be paid to all, and the” dropouts “will be Responsible.

“It’s a bet!”, Recalls Sylvie Benzoni, mathematician, director of the Henri Poincaré Institute, owner of two journals that had just joined the movement. one of them , Annals of the Henri Poincaré C InstituteUntil he took the opportunity to leave the publishing giant Elsevier. New Publisher, European Mathematical Society Publishing House (EMS Press), Already has ten “Fatah subscription” newspapers and plans to pass the rest of its catalog under this system, that is, 11 more, next year.

‘A fairer and more sustainable system’

The idea for this model was published in 2019 in Learn to publish. In the process, its creators applied it to newspapers Annual Reviews. They were looking for an alternative to the popular and familiar author model: article authors pay the publisher to publish and access their work for free. Often the amount exceeds 2,000 euros, or even 5,000 euros per item. This model is catastrophic for science. Can lead to researchers being excluded from publishing, André Gül, director of EMS Press, recalls. Mathematicians don’t want that. And we needed a fairer and more sustainable system. “

You have 32.26% of this article to read. The rest is for subscribers only.