This is the third installment in a series of editorials on the implications of open-access publishing for established publishing practices and stakeholders in scientific and medical research.

Alternative Business Models The findings of the second report seem to have caused quite a controversy-particularly in the suggestion that moving wholesale to an open-access publishing model might produce savings of up to 30% [6].

But these publications will also serve another function-they will provide examples that other journals can follow, and will increase confidence in the sustainability of open-access publishing as a business model.

The principles of open source have been adapted for many forms of user-generated content and technology, including open-source hardware, Wikipedia, and open-access publishing.

The entire field of particle physics is set to switch to open-access publishing, a milestone in the push to make research results freely available to readers.

This is the second in a series of three editorials that aim to address recurring concerns about the benefits and risks associated with open-access publishing in medicine and the biological sciences.

As the article-writer says, open-access publishing is an alternative model that acknowledges (and pays for) the work done by publishers while also making research accessible to the public.

The GIGA Journal Family is funded by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) as a pilot project in open-access publishing.

Until the relatively recent advent of open-access publishing, readers have been expected to foot the costs of the publishing process.

While open-access publishing typically requires the author to pay a fee for copyright retention, this fee is sometimes covered by a third party.