The Spanish scientific journals: A descriptive approach

The main objective of this article is to present a broad description of Spanish scientific journals. The results were obtained from a survey distributed to 1,280 editors of Spanish scientific journals included in Dulcinea database (2012 edition). The response rate was 43,8%. As specific objectives, the study aimed to characterize scientific journals and to analyze the particularities of a set of parameters that make up the economic, strategic and operational dimensions of the journals in the period studied. The results show that the funding model of the Spanish scientific journals depends mainly on institutional support, that many journals lack a stable organizational structure and rely heavily on volunteer work, and that the debate on the limitations and difficulties affecting the development of open access remains open.