Overview of publication business models

NOTE: THIS VERSION HAS BEEN SUPERSEDED BY DOI 10.18727/docs/10.

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

• Gold OA using Article Processing Charges (APCs): involving commercial / society publishers, and Overlay Journals
• Transformative agreements: Read-And-Publish (RAP) and Publish-And-Read (PAR) agreements
• Diamond OA (Library-supported): SCOAP3 and Subscribe to Open (S2O)
• Closed: Subscription

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

• Status
• Who pays?
• How much?
• Who can read (i.e., who has read / use access)?
• Who can publish (i.e., whose publishing costs are covered)?
• Is the business model Plan S compliant?
• Expected cost evolution

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