Open access to scientific publications: ideas and problems

Open access scholarly publishing did not have yet a serious impact on the slow-moving world of research. Neither could it solve the serials crisis. Nonetheless we have to see that the push of journals from paper to electronic media resulted in an infrastructure the existence of which shed light – among others - to the fact that the system of journal publishing, acceptable in the print environment, is no more sustainable. One of the most promising solutions to solve the serials crisis is open access (OA) publishing that has been initiated by researchers feeling responsibility for scholarship and which has many faces. This paper describes the main features of open access scholarly journal publishing and some of the obstacles that stand in its way