Shrinkwrapped Research · 29 May 2001
Mr Haank added that his firm’s price increases forced libraries to cut subscriptions, which in turn cut Elsevier’s income, forcing them to increase prices still more.
— Guardian
It’s always been galling, the way large industries like pharmaceutical and manufacturing internationals realize massive profit slapping patents on research done at publicly-funded universities. But the would-be titans of academic publishing are cranking the gall meter even higher.
Reed Elsevier (fiscal 2000 profit in science and medical publishing: £252 million) has a copyright hammerlock on 1100 scientific publications, including the non-profit Biochemical Society’s Biochemical Journal – nine issues: £1334. For material that was publicly funded, by reseachers who were not paid for publication. All of this, of course, is designed to intimidate libraries and institutions into buckling under to subscription-model electronic distribution of research material, a potentially huge cash cow for Elsevier.
Here’s to the scientists who are fighting back.
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