학술지 시장의 경제적 구조와 국내 오픈엑세스 운동

This paper evaluates the open access (OA) movements in South Korea from the economic perspective on academic publishing. Academic journal, as a medium of researchers, is construed as a platform with readers and writers. Traditional journals (toll access: TA) used to charge the subscription fees on the readers including libraries, which covers more than the cost of publication and distribution. To the contrary, OA journals charge the fees mainly on the writers while the papers are free for readers. In this sense, OA journals switch the fee base from readers to writers, which was expected to incur competition between journals and induce the fall in TA’s subscription fees. The expected competition seems to be far from being effective since TA journals have locked in reputation. South Korea’s OA movements are driven by the governmental organizations and they emphasize “free” papers. As the domestic academia is integrated into the global one, major global academic publishers also take a dominant share in South Korea. By that reason, it is hardly expected that South Korea’s domestic OA movements, by themselves, might lower the soaring subscription fees of academic journals successfully.