Science Pays, For Journal Publishers

The enormous Wellcome Trust has finally knuckled down and produced a report on the viability of scientific publishing as we know it. They should know, since they pay for much of it.

What does the Wellcome Trust conclude? They conclude that "the current market structure does not operate in the long-term interests of the research community" Ouch. And that "the ‘public good’ element of scientific work means market solutions are inefficient." Double Ouch.

Now you might think this is a question of sour grapes because allegedly, the origin of the report occured when the Director of the Wellcome Trust was told about a breakthrough article written by one of the Wellcome investigators scientists working in Africa. But when he went to look the article up on-line, he was greeted instead with a "you are not subscribed to our journal". This is the director of one of the biggest medical funding bodies in the world, and he funded the research.

Nevertheless, this report is a solid piece of investigation into the scientific publishing industry. There is some excellent muckracking. For instance,on describing the business tactics of the largest science publisher Elsevier, the report attributed the Elsevier business strategy to the CEO Crispin Davis, who, the report quotes "was recently described in Forbes magazine as 'an unlikely choice [for Elsevier CEO]. Davis had previously worked for Proctor & Gamble, mostly in Cincinnati, Ohio, before messing up at Guinness, then resurrecting his reputation at Aegis, a midsize European buyer of ad space.' " That's really solid publishing credentials.

The report gives a sobering analysis of the supply-demand economics of science-publishing and shows how there is no feed-back loop, because the buyers of the journals (mostly libraries) are not the readers of the journals (the scientists). This makes it ripe for monopolistic manipulation. Yearly increases in journal prices (30% in 1999) exceed the rate of inflation. And the profit margins, sometimes up to 30% is sweet-as. Science is a public endeavour, a social good paid for federal funds. And as scuh, the largesse of the huge conglomerated publishing houses flows directly from the pocket of the american tax-payer.