Editing Subscription business model (section)

== Academic journals ==
{{see also|Big deal (subscription model)}}
In the field of [[academic publishing]], the subscription business model means that articles of a specific [[academic journal|journal]] or [[academic conference|conference proceedings]] are only available to subscribers. Subscriptions are typically sold to [[universities]] and other [[higher education institution]]s and [[research institute]]s, though some academic publishers also sell individual subscriptions or access to individual articles.

In contrast with other media such as [[newspaper]]s, subscription fees to academic publishers generally do not go towards supporting the creation of the content: the scientific articles are written by scientists and [[peer review|reviewed]] by other scientists as part of their work duties. The publisher does not pay the paper authors and reviewers. In this light, the subscription model has been called undesirable by proponents of the [[open access]] movement.

Academic publications that use the subscription model are called "closed-access" in opposition to their open-access counterparts.