The use of business models by publishers of open access scientific electronic journals

This work reports the use of business models in the context of open access electronic scholarly journals publishing. Additionally, the discussion takes into account disciplinary differences, particularly in terms of three issues, namely required publication speed, funding and features involving the edition of a scholarly journal. The study aimed to identify required elements for the design of business models appropriated to open access scholarly journals publishing, as well as to relate these elements to the specific area of knowledge. Based on a bibliographic survey, the research adopted a qualitative approach that consisted of analyzing the content of the literature reviewed. As a result, the study presents three business models for the activity of open access electronic journal publishing, comprised of a group of four components proposed by Stahler's, namely value proposition, products and/or services, value architecture and source of resources. Each model represents particularities of one the three major divisions of knowledge, that is, Sciences, Social & Human Sciences and Arts & Humanities, respectively. The study concludes that the features of business models for Sciences journals are considerably different from journals of the two other divisions. On the other hand, there are important similarities between business models for journals from the Social & Human Sciences, as well as from Arts & Humanities.