Haank: STM industry 'too slow' on content-sharing | The Bookseller

"The STM industry has 'wasted' two years as a result of its reluctance to share research, according to Derk Haank, c.e.o. of Springer Nature. During his keynote speech at the 'Research & Scholarly Publishing Forum' yesterday (12th April), Haank said he was concerned about publishers’ progress on the 'big issue' of sharing. He said: 'It is too little too late. We have wasted at least one or two years. The Springer initiative is nice and the Elsevier initiative is nice, but it only works if we have an industry-wide initiative.' His comments refer to both publishers’ recent trials, which enabled researchers to freely share peer-reviewed content among themselves, media entities and the public. While conceding that sharing could result in only 'one customer, and the rest of the world shares [the Haank product]', Haank said it would be a 'very good development' if it led to more users, which would grant STM firms 'a licence to operate' ..."