This article will attempt to outline the current situation in Scandinavia concerning scientific journals and attitudes to Open Access.

Museum Tusculanum Press’s participation in the Nordic journal project Aiding Scientific Journals Towards Open Access Publishing will be discussed along with the results emerging from MTP’s experiences with Nordic editors of journals.

A European Open Access project concerning scientific monographs within the humanities and social sciences, OAPEN, in which MTP is also a participant, will be outlined for purposes of comparison.

While financial advantages of Open Access publishing were eyed at the beginning of this century – it was imagined that the publisher could be eliminated by employing this method of publication – the reverse seems to be true today. By attempting to oversee the entire process themselves, journal editors have realized how difficult this feat is.

Many of the best editors and particularly the younger scholars express their need for professional assistance from publishers. Being employed in time limited positions and being subjected to regular bibliometrical quality and quantity requirements, they find no time for some of the invisible tasks in journal editing such as production, information and distribution, or more specifically: technical aspects, copy editing, the clearing of rights, proofreading, etc.

Editors are further particularly interested in publishing under the aegis of a publishing house with a brand of high quality, since they are not themselves capable of meeting the demands and challenges that are involved in making visible the quality of the journal. This goes for editors of printed journals for sale as well as editors of Open Access journals.

Due to all this, an apparent need for two different types of publishers has emerged. These will be described.

Finally the standing question of how to finance Open Access publishing will briefly be addressed. It is necessary to pay for the services rendered, but the lack of sales of the end products makes the budget unstable. There is therefore a need for foundations – seeing that there is no tradition within the humanities for article processing fees.

Museum Tusculanum Press is ready to engage in collaborative projects concerning Open Access journals with the IARU universities with a view to drawing attention to and experiences of levels of quality on a global basis.