I agree with mr. Asimov, the arxiv is 1 alternative to @#$@#@!#$! springer and co. they charge 35 euros or 50 dollars US for 1 article. they are not the only ones, google is part of it as well for well known works, : take 1 example : Les misérables of Victor Hugo , as far as I know this document is public domain, you can find it in many languages for free. But if you go to 'google play' you have to pay 8 dollars up to 11 dollars for it. .... this is now new : a certain Andrew Odlyzko wrote (in 1995), a couple of articles about this situation of the academic publishing system and came to the conclusion that it would eventualy collapse. At the least, arxiv is almost presque sérieux, almost rigorous, there are others which I agree are questionable. I think they are copies of the archive system they have and that's all there is. One other example : /Titchmarsh/, E. C, wrote one book in the 30's about the zeta function, considered to be : public domain, you can find a copy at Archive.org for FREE (or on my own web site at http://www.plouffe.fr/simon/math/) nevertheless, it is 8.00 dollars at books google and 98 EUROS at amazon.com , and in UK : 87 pounds, this is 150 dollars US ?... http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780198533696.do#.Uma7mBD6RRc I am sorry but this SUCKS, this is my opinion, the whole system of copyrights is SNAFU, even FUBAR, Simon Plouffe