Preliminary Findings: Rent Seeking by Elsevier – The Knowledge G.A.P.

ab1630's bookmarks 2017-09-29

Summary:

Publishers are increasingly in control of scholarly infrastructure and why we should care; A Case Study of Elsevier.

Over the last few decades, there has been ongoing debate and distress regarding the effects of the journal subscription paywall and the very real barriers to knowledge access that it creates. As major academic publishers invest and redirect their business strategies to open access and alternative paying structures, it may seem as if the access to knowledge battle is starting to be won. However, as big publishers move towards openness they have also been redirecting their business strategies towards the acquisition of scholarly infrastructure, the tools and services that underpin the scholarly research life cycle, many of which are geared towards data analytics. We argue that moves toward increased control over openness and data analytics by big publishers are simultaneous processes of profit maximization. Could it be that our attention on the paywall has ditracted us from paying attention to the strategic takeover of infrastructure by the publishers? These processes should be examined closely as they are actively entrenching the publisher’s’ power and control which could be posing great threats to the exclusion of already marginalized researchers and institutions.   

Link:

http://knowledgegap.org/index.php/sub-projects/rent-seeking-and-financialization-of-the-academic-publishing-industry/preliminary-findings/

From feeds:

Open Access Tracking Project (OATP) » ab1630's bookmarks
Open Access Tracking Project (OATP) » peter.suber's bookmarks
Open Access Tracking Project (OATP) » Amyluv's bookmarks

Tags:

oa.new oa.publishers oa.paywalls oa.access oa.journals oa.analytics oa.business_models oa.south oa.elsevier oa.open_science oa.research_cycle oa.obstacles oa.monopoly oa.scholcomm oa.case oa.platforms oa.infrastructure oa.infographics

Date tagged:

09/29/2017, 06:51

Date published:

09/28/2017, 23:36