What do you think the future of scientific publishing? Do you think that all journals will move to open access journals? or do you think open access journals will gradually disappear? What is the future of this area?
Samy - open access sure seems to be here to stay for some time. I doubt that it will disappear. It exists, over older models of distribution/dissemination i.e. personal and institutional subscription because of market supply and demand - and the pressure for scholars to publish and a more competitive environment. At the moment probably subscription models outnumber open access - but I think that will swing in the near future. However, I think that both models will remain for some time - until something different/better comes along - whatever that might be.
A string of a dozen responses that bear on the future of scientific publishing, especially open access, is at https://www.researchgate.net/post/Do_you_think_all_journals_should_be_open_access_for_knowledge_sharing. My take was that:
"Open access has pros and cons. For sure, making articles (and other knowledge products) free for all does increase readership, which may be particularly important in low-income countries where researchers recurrently explain that lack of access to subscription-based journals is a problem. That said, someone must still cover the cost of publication: where funds are scarce, this may discourage authors from going open access. Other disadvantages may include lack of quality control and sustainability: on the one hand, open access models may incentivize journals to publish more articles; on the other, they may not adequately support the research publication infrastructure in the long term."