The Pricing of Academic Journals: A Two-Sided Market Perspective (juin 2007)
(Source: Munich Personal RePEc Archive)

"More and more academic journals adopt an open-access policy, by which articles are accessible free of charge, while publication costs are recovered through author fees. We study the consequences of this open access policy on a journal’s quality standard. If the journal’s objective was to maximize social welfare, open access would be optimal as soon as the positive externalities generated by its diffusion exceed the marginal cost of distribution. However, if the journal has a different objective (such as maximizing its impact), the move from the traditional reader-pays model to the open-access model may result in a decrease in quality standard below the socially efficient level."

Un des coeurs du débat sur la question, n'est-ce pas... Il faudra bien qu'un jour, "ils" se mettent d'accord sur les réels ou prétendus effets du libre accès sur la notion de "qualité".

Via ResourceShelf