Scholarly Associations and the Economic Viability of Open Access Publishing

Abstract

The information landscapes within which scholars work is undergoing a seismic shift. The computer monitor that rises out of the photocopy stacks, piles of journals, clippings and correspondence, now offers a new, rich vein of information that seems destined to eventually overwhelm the traditional trappings of desktops, filing cabinets, and bookshelves. After little more than a decade of Internet publishing, two-thirds of academic journals provide online access, while more than 1,000 peer-reviewed journals are published solely in digital form (Tenopir and King, 2001). Faculty and students are increasingly writing with their browsers open to online research sources.