Scientific journals in <scp>B</scp>razil and <scp>S</scp>pain: Alternative publishing models

Abstract

This paper describes high‐quality journals in B razil and S pain, with an emphasis on the distribution models used. It presents the general characteristics (age, type of publisher, and theme) and analyzes the distribution model by studying the type of format (print or digital), the type of access (open access or subscription), and the technology platform used. The 549 journals analyzed (249 in B razil and 300 in S pain) are included in the 2011 W eb of S cience ( WoS ) and S copus databases. Data on each journal were collected directly from their websites between March and O ctober 2012. B razil has a fully open access distribution model (97%) in which few journals require payment by authors thanks to cultural, financial, operational, and technological support provided by public agencies. In S pain, open access journals account for 55% of the total and have also received support from public agencies, although to a lesser extent. These results show that there are systems support of open access in scientific journals other than the “author pays” model advocated by the Finch report for the U nited K ingdom.