Newsletter of the Office of Scholarly Communication June 2018

"As we reported last month, one of the world’s largest publishers, Springer Nature, was due to float on the stock market on 9 May, but due to low demand was withdrawn. An analysis of the prospectus recently published in the Times Higher Education has identified plans for Springer Nature to link the cost of Article Processing Charges for open access with a journal’s Impact Factor. This is interesting to say the least and indicates a move by large publishers to consolidate payments for open access into an effective new type of Big Deal. This approach also further cements the current flawed academic reward system despite Springer recently signing the Declaration of Research Assessment. The messages the academic/library community are being given are in stark contrast to the messages that were being sent to potential investors."