Friends: Peter Suber's blog carries this item today. Dr D K Sahu of MedKnow Publications, Bombay, has 40 OA titles and his experience is similar to that of Hindwani's. Arun ------- Viable business models for OA journals Victoria Rae and Fytton Rowland, "Is there a viable business model for commercial OA publishing?" Forthcoming in Serials. Thanks to William Walsh for the alert as well as for this abstract: The study reported here investigated the potential viability of open access (OA) models for commercial scholarly journal publishers by means of interviews with knowledgeable professionals in the business. The conclusion was that it is as yet unproven whether or not a viable OA business model exists. There are likely to be widely different approaches between different disciplines in the future, with OA unlikely to find acceptance in the humanities and social sciences. However, if any viable OA models do exist, they are likely to be more sophisticated than those tried hitherto, and some suggestions are made regarding possible variables that might be tested in future experiments. On the particular issue of "free riders", it is suggested that the use of a Creative Commons Deed may enable publishers to continue to receive additional non-subscription revenue from industrial users. PS: On June 21, 2006, Hindawi reported that its OA journal collection was already profitable. It's possible that this article was finished and in press before that date. Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com