Richard Smith: A Big Brother future for science publishing? – The BMJ

"There have been big changes in science publishing in the 25 years since the appearance of the internet, but at the same time science publishing is still dominated by journals, a 17th century invention. The tipping point when true transformation begins has long been predicted and may now be close. Why do I say this?

The single most powerful force in science publishing ought to be scientists but is probably Elsevier, which publishes over 2500 journals. It has consistently achieved profit margins of over 30% on its science publishing, a much higher margin than most businesses achieve. It achieves such margins because it is like an oil company that is given oil for free. The oil of Elsevier is research studies.

Scientists and librarians have long resented the way that they see Elsevier and other commercial publishers exploit science, but boycotts, mass resignations from editorial boards, the appearance of open access publishers like PLoS (Public Library of Science), and other attempts to undermine the power of Elsevier have been unsuccessful...."