The Oligopoly of Academic Publishers in the Digital Era

“Scholarly publications themselves can be considered information goods with high fixed and low variable costs [35,36].”

“Moreover, these disciplines make a much more important use of books [9] and generally rely on local journals [29], all of which are factors that make it much less interesting for big publishers to buy journals or found new ones in the arts and humanities.”

“4 billion US dollars in 2011 [31], the majority of which were generated by a few publishing houses, the scientific journal publishing market faces oligopolistic conditions, where big players such as Elsevier, Springer, Taylor & Francis, Wiley-Blackwell and Wolters Kluwer determine annually increasing subscription rate…”

“Indeed, many authors have discussed the various transformations of the scholarly communication landscape brought by the digital era (see, among others, Borgman [14–15]; Kling and Callahan [16]; Tenopir & King [17]; Odlyzko [18]).”

“During the 20 century they consolidated their position as the main media for diffusing research [6], especially in the natural and medical sciences [9].”

“Also, the transition from print to electronic—a strong argument for journals to convert to commercial publishers—has happened at a much slower pace in those disciplines as the use for recent scientific information is less pressing [28].”

“Academic publishing remains highly concentrated among a small number of commercial publishers [4] whose profit margins approach 40%, rivaling the most profitable corporations [5,6].”

“Moreover, its digital business practices have transformed academic publishing, university ranking, competition among universities, as well as, the institution of science (Larivière et al., 2015).”

“It involves challenging entrenched power structures, reconfiguring the political economy of academic publishing (Larivière et al., 2015), and redefining what constitutes scholarly excellence.”

“At the international level, the consolidation of the publishing industry into large conglomerates raises concerns regarding epistemic diversity, equitable access, and academic autonomy [4, pp. 9-12; 5, p. 95].”

“The aggregation into macro-publishers was performed manually, using online information about the publishers of the documents and their affiliation with broader editorial groups (Larivière et al., 2015; van Bellen et al., 2024).”

“To support this, Larivière et al. (2015) studied 44.5 million scientific papers from 1973 to 2012 and also noticed a steady increase in publications over this period.”

“29 As of the search date, studies in this field has been published across 50 journals.”

“For example, the five largest for-profit publishers accounted for 20% of publications in the 1970s, a figure that rose to 53% in 2013 [9].”

“In fact, scientific journals have become a lucrative business (Larivière et al. 2015), which has also led to a huge increase in the number of potential outlets for papers.”

“As academic publishing allows knowledge to be systematically recorded, it enables researchers to receive public recognition for the originality and priorities of their discoveries (Larivière et al. 2015; Mabe 2009; Tenopir and King 2009).”

“Additionally, there may be a perceived greater credibility associated with academic and federal agency affiliations, which can influence editorial decisions and peer review outcomes (Larivière et al. 2015).”

“Publishers have large profit margins from a burgeoning publication market (7) that is subject to gaming forces on journal impact factors (8).”

“In recent decades, scientific publications have become one of individuals and institutions' leading indicators of academic success (Collyer, 2016; Larivière et al., 2015).”

“More tangible barriers include subscription fees, which can create significant obstacles to accessing research articles, especially for individuals outside academic institutions (Larivière et al., 2015; Pooley, 2020).”

“Lariviere, Haustein, and Mongeon (2015) and Beverungen, Böhm, and Land (2012) have demonstrated the monopolistic hold over academic publishing to the point where three large publishers were responsible for 47% of academic publishing by 2013 (Lariviere, Haustein, and Mongeon 2015).”

“…editors from most disciplines, about the knock-on effects of this growing commercialisation on the nature of scientific work, the role of academic researchers within it, and the implications for access to, and use of, their research outputs (O ’ Loughlin & Sidaway 2020, Larivière et al. 2015).”

“…journals, funders and societies (half of First, the for-profit or not- for-profit dogma that publishers present a barrier to open research is not represented in our mission and vision statements (Eddy, 2019; Larivière et al., 2015) or in vocabulary tied to business and profit (Figures 2c and 3c).”

“Larivière et al. (2015) have shown that more than 50% of all articles indexed in Web of Science (WoS) have been published in journals owned by five big commercial publishers.”

“…since 1970s, center-based countries own three of the top five most prolific publishers in the world—Reed-Elsevier (Amsterdam, The Netherlands), Wiley-Blackwell (Hoboken, NJ, USA), Springer (Berlin/Heidelberg, Germany), Taylor & Francis (Abingdon, UK), and Sage (Lawrenceville, GA, USA) [30,31].”

“The first questionnaire, applied before the course (at baseline), was structured to identify: [1] participant’s characteristics (age, gender, professional identification, etc.”

“Indeed, the pursuit of quantifiable achievements and merit-based career progression among scientists has culminated in an unprecedented surge in the volume of scientific publications over the past decade [2].”

“A small group of major commercial publishers has gained a dominant share of the scientific publishing market, the current situation in scientific publishing has been likened to an oligopoly [4].”

“Second, as noted by other scholars (Asai, 2020; Bergstrom, 2001; Coomes et al., 2017), the power game of the large, oligopolistic publishers (Larivière et al., 2015) has already affected the direction and forms of disciplinary publications and what is perceived as a ‘valuable’ outlet.”

“Así, al igual que sucede en otras disciplinas científicas 17 , es la editorial Elsevier la que controla la publicación científica enfermera.”

“…due to the new possibilities that the Internet could bring to the academic publishing process (reduction of associated costs to printing processes, new business models not based on subscription, etc.), but in fact it has been quite the opposite (Aspesi & Brand, 2020; Larivière et al. , 2015).”

“advantaging small, independent society journals and publishers (van Noorden 2013; Larivière et al. 2015).”

“…& Sons, Taylor & Francis y Springer aumentaron la cantidad de revistas bajo su órbita, mediante un proceso de creación de nuevas publicacio-nes periódicas y de adquisición de las existentes, que se desarrolló aceleradamente desde mediados de la década de 1990 (Larivière, Haustein, & Mongeon, 2015).”

“discussed the transformation of scholarly journal publishing, from a time in which learned societies were largely in control of the journal publishing enterprise to the current state in which an oligopoly of five large corporate entities (Elsevier, Wiley–Blackwell, Springer, Taylor & Francis, and Sage; a sixth, the Am…”

“…has been showed that in both Natural and Medical Sciences (NMS) there is still a moderate level of concentration of scientific papers in the hands of a few big publishers, highlighting a relative independence that has been attributed to the strength of scientific societies (Larivière et al. 2015).”

“…who control a large section of the market: companies like Reed-Elsevier, Taylor & Francis, Wiley-Blackwell, Springer, and Sage consolidated journal content through horizontal integration – in 2013 they accounted for more than 50% of all papers published across disciplines (Larivière et al., 2015).”

“( Lariviere, Haustein and Mongeon, 2015) Thanks to the high subscription fees, which have grown three times as much as the price of other goods and services, they are making extreme profit; Elsevier has a staggering 34 %.”

“In the social sciences and humanities the publication landscape in general is more fragmented (OPERAS 2017) and less dependent of large publishers (because it is less attractive) compared to sciences (Larivière et al. 2015).”

“A major hurdle to the growth of OA – and market barrier protecting the commercial publishers’ oligopoly – has been the fact that academic authors’ career advancement is often based upon publication in the established, high impact journals (Larivière, Haustein, & Mongeon, 2015).”

“(Larivière et al., 2015) Other commercial publishers also enjoy healthy profit margins.”

“bias [3, 4]; in addition, they are quite expensive and many institutions, even in developed countries, cannot afford to subscribe [9].”

“Elsevier, Springer, Wiley-Blackwell and SAGE are the publishers with the highest share (Larivière et al., 2015), which suggests that researchers active in economics tend to publish in journals which are internationally significant and have a large impact and share.”

“These five publishing houses published more than half of all the academic peer-reviewed papers in the world in 2013, while in 1973 their share was merely 20 % (Larivière et al. 2015).”

“Indeed, most participants mentioned addressing dimensions #1, 2, 4 and 9 of sustainable diet (See the complete list in Figure 1) because these recommendations are part of the Canada Food Guide for healthy habits and optimal health outcomes.”

“We argue that, because we live in the internet age, rapid exposure to groundbreaking research is common (see, for example, Allen et al. 2013; Larivière et al. 2015; Osca-Lluch and Haba 2005, see also Lehrer et al. 2007), just as it has been but with a more limited capacity with the mass media for…”