Thousands of scientists in Germany, Peru and Taiwan are preparing for a new year without online access to journals from the Dutch publishing giant Elsevier. Contract negotiations in both Germany and Taiwan broke down in December, while Peru’s government has cut off funding for a licence.
“It’s very unpleasant,” says Horst Hippler, spokesperson for the DEAL consortium of state-funded universities and research organizations, which is overseeing negotiations in Germany. “But we just cannot accept what Elsevier has proposed so far.”
A quick review:
1. You as a taxpayer pay for the salaries of academics, and among those who are scientists, their labs. This is as it should be.
2. But then scientific research and academic papers are enclosed by private corporations like Elsevier behind pay walls and sold back to the public (public and university libraries, individuals, etc.) that paid for the labor behind these papers in the first place.
As a result…
3. The transmission of knowledge is slowed down. One way this happens is the common practice of imposing 6 month to 12 month ‘embargoes’ that limit access to journals. If your library or institution can’t afford the high rates that these companies charge, you may have to wait a full year to access any number of journals.
4. Access to information becomes another source of inequality.
5. Students and even academics everywhere are unable to access information they need.
6. This might very well slow the pace of research in various areas, including urgent medical research.
7. The exorbitant fees charged by these academic publishing companies drain scarce university and public resources.
And for what purpose?
Basically none. Everything a company like Elsevier does could be done by the public sector at lower cost and done in such a way as to eliminate the castle walls that limit access to knowledge.
The for-profit academic publishers really exist for no other reason than to parasitize public wealth for private gain.
Scientists in Germany, Peru and Taiwan to lose access to Elsevier journals
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