Making scientific research available for free on the internet rather than through subscription journals could reduce the cost of publishing research by up to 30%, a report published this week says.

The report, Costs and Business Models in Scientific Research Publishing(available at www.wellcome.ac.uk/publications) indicates that an open access model of scientific publishing—where authors of a research paper pay for their research to be peer reviewed and made available on the web free of charge to readers—is economically viable.

It was based on a study by the Wellcome Trust, a research funding charity, that analysed the costs of publishing scientific, technical, and medical research articles by comparing two options: the “subscriber pays” model, in which readers pay for printed journals or online access, and the “author pays” model. Estimates of cost were based on discussions with senior staff across a range of journals …