A Library Sciences Masters student, recently sent us a Slideshare presentation titled, “What’s Wrong With Scholarly Publishing Today?” by Bjorn Brembs . It provided a ton of illuminating data on problems that scientists see with academic publishing. Of course, these problems just aren’t limited to science, but exist in all facets of academia .
Academics work. Publishers reap the benefits.
According to the presentation (which provides citations), the big three publishers generate the following net income:
Thomson Reuters : $1 billion
Reed Elsevier : $0.6 billion
Wolters Kluwer (Includes Springer) : $0.5 billion
It’s a wonder that these publishers generate this amount of income when the actual research is carried out by scholars. This is what happens when scholars outsource communication to publishing houses.
See below for the 10 most expensive journal subscriptions (in Euros). That’s right, Biochimica et Biophysica Acta costs a university library ~19,000 Euros a year .
Additionally, journal prices have had a 400% change on average between 1986 and 2008:
Peer-Review, & Reputation
Another problem that the presentation author briefly touched on, is the problem of reputation systems to reward academics for their hard work and a better system for peer review.
A Great Presentation
Very informative. You should definitely check it out .
