Various modes of open access (OA) publishing have emerged over the last 30 years to replace or augment subscription-based (“toll-access”) publishing. Despite the shift from print to electronic, prices have only risen.
As publishing became more commercialized in the second half of the 20th century, journal subscription prices began increasing, outpacing both inflation and university budgets.
Prior to the development of the internet, the costs of printing, shipping, and other operations were offset by user and institutional subscriptions. Scholarly publishing relies on the gift economy of academia in which authors provide content for free and editors and peer reviewers donate their time to review that content.
