Editing Scientific journal (section)

==Cost==
{{main article|Academic publishing#Publishers and business aspects}}
{{see also|Academic journal#Costs}}

Traditional scientific journals require a paid subscription to access published articles.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Van Noorden |first1=Richard |title=Open access: The true cost of science publishing |journal=Nature |date=March 2013 |volume=495 |issue=7442 |pages=426–429 |doi=10.1038/495426a |bibcode=2013Natur.495..426V |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/495426a |access-date=26 March 2025}}</ref> Many scientists and librarians have long protested these costs, especially as they see these payments going to large for-profit publishing houses.<ref name="mmmonline">{{Cite web|url=https://www.mmm-online.com/channel/elsevier-begins-outreach-as-push-back-on-publisher-threatens-to-widen/article/225855/|title=Elsevier begins outreach as push-back on publisher threatens to widen|last=Weinstein|first=Deborah|date=1 Feb 2012|website=MM&M|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180215023645/https://www.mmm-online.com/channel/elsevier-begins-outreach-as-push-back-on-publisher-threatens-to-widen/article/225855/|archive-date=2018-02-15}}</ref> To allow their researchers online access to journals, many universities purchase ''site licenses'', permitting access from anywhere in the university, and, with appropriate authorization, by university-affiliated users at home or elsewhere. These may be much more expensive than the cost for a print subscription.
Despite the transition to electronic publishing, the costs of site licenses continue to rise relative to universities' budgets.  This is known as the ''[[serials crisis]]''.<ref>{{Cite journal |title=Harvard University says it can't afford journal publishers' prices |first=Ian |last=Sample |journal=The Guardian |date=24 April 2012 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/apr/24/harvard-university-journal-publishers-prices |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161207164109/https://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/apr/24/harvard-university-journal-publishers-prices |archive-date=7 December 2016 }}</ref>

Publications by [[scholarly societies]], also known as not-for-profit-publishers, usually cost less than commercial publishers, but their subscription costs are still usually several thousand dollars a year. In general, this money is used to fund the activities of the scientific societies that run such journals, or is invested in providing further scholarly resources for scientists; thus, the money remains in and benefits the scientific sphere.

Concerns about cost and open access have led to the creation of free-access journals such as the [[Public Library of Science]] (PLoS) family and partly open or reduced-cost journals such as the ''[[Journal of High Energy Physics]]''. However, professional editors still have to be paid, and PLoS still relies heavily on donations from foundations to cover the majority of its operating costs; smaller journals do not often have access to such resources.{{cn|date=March 2025}} Open access journals may charge authors a fee for review or publication, rather than charging a readers a fee for access.<ref name="mmmonline" />

Based on statistical arguments, it has been shown that electronic publishing online, and to some extent [[open access]], both provide wider dissemination and increase the average number of citations an article receives.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/online-nature01/ |title=Online Or Invisible? |author-link=Steve Lawrence (computer scientist) |first=Steve |last=Lawrence |publisher=[[NEC Research Institute]] |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070316145522/http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/online-nature01/ |archive-date=2007-03-16 }}</ref>