A revolution is taking place in the world of scientific publishing. In the traditional model of publishing scientific articles, the author raised money to conduct the research project, then submitted the paper to a scientific journal for consideration for publication; if the manuscript survived the brutal peer review process, the author would be required to assign copyright to the publisher and pay 'page charges' for publication of the article. Finally, the author (as reader) had to pay a subscription fee to the publisher of the journal in order to have access to his or her published paper! Authors, members of the public and funders of research are understandably in revolt against this apparent exploitation of authors and readers by traditional publishers who extract substantial profits from the production of scientific knowledge through the efforts and investments of others. This unfavourable situation has led to the rise of the 'open access' movement in scientific publishing
