The elevator pitch version, for the academic / university administrator who is having a hard time letting go of those high-profit publishers' products:
Elevator pitch
Okay, Elsevier* does have some pretty snazzy journals** and useful services, and of course they need to make a profit because that's what the company is all about. So, next time we renew our Elsevier contract, how much of YOUR salary and benefits should we redirect to Elsevier profits - all, or just some?
* Replace Elsevier as appropriate with another high-profit commercial or not-for-profit that acts like a corporation.
** Replace journals as appropriate with books, bibliographies, etc., etc.
High profits for commercial publishers – or jobs for
academics?
For-profit scholarly
publishers are enjoying these gifts of ours [journal articles and
peer-reviewing services freely given away]. Commercial publishers are involved
in publishing about half of the world’s scholarly peer-reviewed journals. The
profits, at least for the largest commercial publishers, are enormous and out
of touch with the reality of academia. I am sure that we are all too familiar
with the financial realities of academia today. If you look at the website of
the American Association of University Professors, you will see prominently
posted a list of “Financial Crisis FAQs”, which state that the current
challenging financial situation is being used to justify a number of measures
that impact on academics, including “hiring and salary freezes, furloughs,
salary cuts, layoffs, nonrenewals, reduction and elimination of academic
programs and colleges, revision of curricula, changes in academic policy,
elimination of tenure, substantial changes in workload, and more”. In 2010, the UK announced that it would
eliminate funding for humanities and social sciences teaching altogether,
leaving the entire burden of education in these areas on the shoulders of
students. I study at Simon Fraser University in Canada, where a couple of years
ago we axed the Canadian Studies department.
The for-profit
scholarly publishing sector is not at all sharing in this misfortune. The
largest companies – Reed Elsevier, Springer, Wiley, informa.plc (also known as
Taylor & Francis), all reported profits in the range of 30-40% in their
latest financial statements. Wiley reported a 13% growth in profits over last
year at this time, for a 42% profit level. To picture just how high this profit
level is, compare this with what you are likely seeing in your personal
investments. A bank’s interest on your savings account is probably a lot closer
to .0036% than to 36%, the profit
rate that Elsevier recently posted. This is an inelastic market. It doesn’t
matter if many of the people who are doing the largest share of the work –
doing the research, writing up the results, doing the peer review – are losing
some of their jobs and bits of their salaries, or if the universities that are,
by far, the major part of the customer base for these companies are facing
extremely challenging financial times. These things don’t impact the bottom
line, at all. Another way to express this is that for these for-profit
companies, their CEOs and their shareholders – to whom we give our life’s work –
it fundamentally does not matter whether we have work to live.
References
American
Association of University Professors. 2011. Financial Crisis FAQs. Retrieved October 5, 2011 from http://www.aaup.org/aaup/financial/mainpage.htm
Elsevier
profits: Economist (2011). Of goats and headaches: One of the best media businesses is also one of the most resented. Retrieved September 25,
2011 from http://www.economist.com/node/18744177/
Informa
plc. (2011). Half year results for the
six months ended 30 June 2011. Retrieved September 25, 2011 from http://www.informa.com/Investor-relations/
John
Wiley & Sons. (2011). John Wiley
& Sons reports first quarter fiscal year 2012 results. Retrieved from http://ca.wiley.com.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/WileyCDA/PressRelease/pressReleaseId-100853.html
Springer
Science + Business Media. (2010). Annual
report. Retrieved September 25, 2011 from http://www.springer.com/about+springer/company+information/annual+report?SGWID=0-175705-0-0-0
This is a snippet from an
early draft of Chapter 2 of my thesis, tentatively called Freedom for scholarship in the internet age, combined with speaking
notes from my talk, Information feudalism
or knowledge for all, at the Association of Internet Researchers
Conference, Seattle, October 2011. I am planning to release more detailed
version(s) in the near future.
This post is part of the Transitioning to open access series.
For related posts and comments by others, check out the twitter hashtag #occupyscholcomm
