I work at a small academic database as a developer. We charge a pittance compared to what a lot of the larger players in this market do. And I&#x27;m conflicted.<p>We are a registered non profit, and are actively losing money. Developer costs, of which there are only two. Building costs--I also shovel snow!, marketing costs, hosting costs, and much more. We have the workload where we would benefit from a staff 3 times the size. Currently we are at 12. Years ago we had a fully functional publishing operation too.<p>But here is the thing. These open access places often are pay to publish. This is built into many grants today. Publishing costs. But not so much in the field I&#x27;m in. The social sciences. So sure, the result of that work should be open access. I just cannot help thinking this takes away from what you could be paying one more lab or research assistant.<p>a lot of these pay walled sites are struggling to survive as library budgets dwindle. Maybe there isn&#x27;t much room left for the little players. Many are bought up or have folded over the last 20 years.