Overview of publication business models

NOTE: THIS VERSION HAS BEEN SUPERSEDED BY DOI 10.18727/docs/8.

This table shows a schematic overview of the most common publication business models currently used in science publishing, with a special focus on Gold Open Access and Transformative Agreements in the context of Plan S.

• Gold OA: Article Processing Charges (APCs) involving commercial publishers, APCs using overlay journals, SCOAP3.
• Transformative agreements: Read-And-Publish (RAP), Publish-And-Read (PAR), “Subscribe to Open”.
• Closed: Subscription.

For each business model, the table lists the following properties: 

• Status (Plan S compliance: Gold OA = yes, Transformative = max. 3 years, Closed = No)
• Who pays?
• How much? 
• Who reads? 
• Who publishes? (i.e., whose publishing costs are covered by the payments mentioned above?)
• Expected cost evolution 

Note: the expected cost evolution reflects the author’s personal opinion.