Short answer: scientific journals make money through subscriptions, open access publication fees, institutional agreements, society partnerships, advertising, reprints, data products, and publishing services.
The business model depends on the journal. Traditional subscription journals charge universities, libraries, institutions, or individuals for access. Readers outside those systems may face paywalls. Open access journals usually make articles free to read, but may charge authors, funders, or institutions an article processing charge.
Subscription and open access models
In the subscription model, the cost is mainly on the reader side. Universities often buy large bundles of journals from publishers. In the open access model, the cost is often on the author side, though many fees are paid by grants, universities, or national agreements rather than by individual researchers.
There are also hybrid journals, where some articles are paywalled and others are open access if a fee is paid. Some open access journals charge no author fees because they are funded by institutions, societies, grants, universities, or volunteer labour.
Why the model is debated
Academic publishing is controversial because much of the labour is supplied by researchers. Authors write papers, reviewers assess them, and editors often contribute scholarly labour, while large publishers may charge high prices for access or publication. Defenders argue that publishers provide quality control, infrastructure, archiving, indexing, production, and discoverability.
The key question for readers is not only who pays, but what incentives the payment model creates. A subscription journal may limit access. A fee-funded journal may be tempted to publish more papers. A reputable journal should have clear editorial standards regardless of business model.