institutions seek funds to conduct a variety of research. Most often this funding comes from government sources (e. g., the National Institutes of Health in the United States), although there are several philanthropic foundations (such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) that are now making major investments in particular types of research.
After the researchers have secured their grants, they conduct their experiments and collect their data. Most of the time these researchers prepare their results in the form of an academic article, which they then submit to a scholarly journal for publication. The journals then arrange for some of the submitted articles to undergo a process of peer review, in which experts within that particular topic or field will read, review, and usually provide comments on the submitted paper.
Some of the articles that pass the peer review stage are then offered for publication in the journal. The journal will notify the author that her paper has been accepted, and usually require that the author transfer copyright in the article to (or agree to an exclusive publishing contract with) the journal. By accepting these terms, the author has granted to the journal her exclusive rights under copyright. This means that the journal—and not the author—is now the copyright holder of the article, and so the journal may restrict the terms of access and reuse provided for by the bundle of rights granted to rights holders under the law.
Because journals have become the de facto rights holders to the articles in which new scientific research is published, they are also in a position to license access to these materials to university libraries, research institutions, and the public—typically for a significant fee. This leads to a cyclical situation in which for-profit publishers essentially sell back access to the scientific and scholarly record that academics originally produced through public grants.
Even after a publishing embargo (usually a time of six months to a year, during which the publishers retain exclusive publishing rights) expires, access to the mostly publicly funded scientific research remains limited, with users only permitted to read those articles if they are properly submitted to institutional repositories. In the end, the public is left with restricted access to the publicly funded scholarly record, and progress in the scientific enterprise doesn’t reach its maximum potential.
There are several critiques of the existing academic publishing system. SPARC has a summary of their key points on its “Open Access” page (licensed
