The role of publishers?

The business models of the big publishers often prevent academics to publish in open access. However also the publishers recognize more and more that there is a need for the authors to make their work more visible and accessible against low costs. Authors are no longer dependent on publishers when it comes to publication. And yet authors like working with publishers, who take the work off their hands and organize quality control.

Authors can select from a wide range of publishers. They can choose one of the new publishers specialising in open access, or a major traditional publisher that has joined the open access bandwagon and now publishes open access journals alongside their existing subscription-based journals. Some large traditional publishers also offer the hybrid open access model, in which authors pay a fee to publish open access articles in subscription-based journals. Many authors are on the editorial board of academic journals. Some of these editors decide to publish the journal themselves, assisted by the open access initiatives of university libraries.