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The Online Revolution

Changing Business Models in Scholarly Publishing

Online technology has revolutionized how scholars communicate with each other. It is also changing how publishers do business. Most commercial and professional society publishers now provide online access to their journals, usually through online subscriptions. Many journal websites offer limited free content as well (usually tables of contents and abstracts). Publishers frequently license their content to online library databases such as ProQuest or EBSCOhost, or partner with services such as HighWire Press, which produces online versions of high-impact, peer-reviewed journals and other scholarly content.

You may be wondering why any of this matters to you. As it turns out, there are several advantages that electronic publishing offers to you as an author:7

  • Digital submission of your manuscript and related image files
  • Increased efficiency in the quality control cycle
  • Decreased time from acceptance to publication of a manuscript.

While most publishers now operate in the digital environment, another publishing model has the potential to revolutionize the future of scholarly publishing: open access.

7 Miller and Harris, 84-85.

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