Democratising Knowledge: a report on the scholarly publisher, Elsevier

"This report discusses Elsevier’s business practices in detail, provides a number of national resistance case studies, and finishes with a series of key recommendations for stakeholders engaged in scholarly communication. There is an incredible amount of scope for education unions to become engaged in aspects such as:

• Increasing attention and support of basic academic freedoms in scholarly publishing, which Elsevier currently constrain in numerous ways;

• Retention of intellectual property rights for researchers, which Elsevier otherwise acquire through unconventional copyright acquisition tactics;

• Fighting against the business strategies of Elsevier as a commercial publisher, especially regarding Open Access;

• Diverting public funds into high profit margins (36%+) for Elsevier during a time of decreasing research and library budgets;

• Challenging the democratic deficit and lack of transparency in Elsevier’s business practices, including their political influence; 

• Forming and strengthening coalitions for negotiating against Elsevier, including supporting ongoing boycotts;

• Helping to provide more sustainable alternatives for researchers, research institutes, and the future of scholarly communication.

Here, the ultimate solution is to reduce the constraints on scholarly communication imposed by Elsevier and return control and governance of research from private interests to the public."