Electronic publishing: non-commercial alternatives

A considerable variety of new non-commercial models for the electronic publication of quality-controlled scholarly articles have been suggested and in some cases implemented over the last ten years. These models are connected, but vary in various parameters. This paper briefly describes them, and speculates that the most promising model is one where the modest initial costs are paid by the author's institution, quality control is imposed by editorial boards responsible to learned societies, and the journal is published in print at a subscription but published electronically free of charge.