Finanzielle Experimente im wissenschaftlichen Publikationswesen

Abstract

The traditional model of scholarly publishing - the scientists read literature and write articles, the publishers bring them on the market, and the libraries acquire these publications - has been questioned in recent years: Due to the tremendous rises in prices for scholarly literature, libraries could no longer afford to acquire the desired amount of (printed) literature. By means of electronic communication, the relevant information gets public and is broadly discussed before the printed version appears. This lead to the consideration that scientists and their organizations could use their funds in a more efficient way than buying content from traditional publishers. As a result, the idea of open access publishing - this means that the literature is freely available in the Internet - emerged. However, also this way of providing information has to be funded. This paper discusses, how this is accomplished, who will pay for literature and information in the scientific institutions, and how these changes affect the access to it.