Graphs from "The Oligopoly of Academic Publishers in the Digital Era"

Five academic publishing companies, Reed-Elsevier, Springer, Sage, Wiley-Blackwell, and Taylor & Francis control a large portion of the academic publishing market, owning the journals where over 50% of articles are published. 

This oligarchical model means that some have reported that Academic Publishing is one of the most profitable industries to be in, with profit margins that come close to or exceed 40% for these five publishers. Specialized demand, high status, and mediated institutional access through academic libraries have been cited as potential factors contributing to a crisis in cost and access.

At one time, the shift to online electronic access seemed to promise real savings in costs; for printing, distribution, and storage of information.  These savings have not materialized, or have not been passed on to subscribers.  Libraries routinely pay "institutional" subscription rates as much as ten times the cost of an individual personal subscription, without institutional usage to support that price.  Publishers have found it lucrative to offer a package of all of their periodicals or eBooks, known as a "Big Deal" or bundle, at a price that looks reasonable on a cost-per-article-published basis.  But these bundles have proven to be a tremendous and growing expense, which is ultimately not sustainable.

The cost of resources increases each year. Unfortunately, library budgets are rarely able to match these increases. These new technological tools and methods of dissemination have opened up new opportunities for how we can share and access research. But the possibilities of a more open and more equitable information landscape have largely gone unrealized. How do we, individually and collectively conceptualize our role as creators and users of information? How can we develop the tools and opportunities we have to try to help shift the publishing world towards one that is more deeply aligned with the values that drew many of us towards research and education? These are questions that academics and librarians have started to ask themselves and take action on. 

The answers and our shared future are still being developed, but we encourage you to take a moment to see what other institutions are doing, learn about some of the ways that these publishers promote values that may be in conflict with your own ideals, and identify what possibilities exist and what steps we might take.

W&L is not alone in navigating the problems of the academic publishing world. All colleges and universities have been trying to adapt to best support faculty and students in a world of growing costs. Here are some examples of the ways colleges and universities are responding to this situation

Walking away from "Big Deal" subscriptions

• Perhaps the most headline-grabbing example of this was when the University of California system walked away from negotiations with publisher Elsevier, due to the price increases Elsevier was demanding in return for making all future publications from UC authors open access. Before walking away, University of California had an $11 million "big deal"
• The University of Florida, University of Delaware, and many others have also canceled similar "big deals" with Elsevier, and other publishers such as Springer.

Creating Open Access digital commons

• W&L has a Digital Archive where you can self-archive your work to make it openly available (depending on copyright agreements with your publishers).

Developing Open science programs or task forces

• Schools like McGill and Carnegie Mellon have interwoven open science practices into one or more of their schools, centers, and programs. This commitment to access includes not just the final project, but transparency for different parts of the research process to encourage reproducibility.
• MIT's open access task force reviewed the policies and practices of the university community to better understand the practices and understanding of information creation and access on campus, especially in relation to open access ideals.

Providing increased resources for student information literacy development 

• At the end of the day, we are not conducting research and doing our work in a bubble. The growing open access movement can be connected to the educational movement to support student information literacy and research skills that will support their schoolwork, careers, and life as people. (Though this research is sometimes, ironically published behind paywalls...)
• As appropriate, a growing number of librarians now teach class sessions that include information about the open access movement. These sessions can include elements of critical information literacy, encouraging students to ask questions and analyze social, political, and economic factors related to information access, privilege, and exclusion.

We recognize that the challenges of access and academic publishing are complex and there will not be a single tool that will address all needs. We do not anticipate that W&L will be able to solve the problem alone, but we can support a needed cultural shift in how we access information, share our research, and support student and public access to knowledge. 

This will involve changes to how we currently do things. We understand that change can be painful, which is why we are here to aid any needed transitions. University Library faculty and staff are working to try to minimize the disruption to your work processes through the integration of Open Access options, interlibrary lending, and other tools.  The Library is here to support you as you make changes to your information- and knowledge-seeking behaviors.

Here are some things that you can do to support this culture shift:

• Recognize that there will continue to be changes to how you access information through the library and online. Discuss your information needs and search strategies with colleagues and your liaison librarian. 
• Remember that this shift in our information practices and world will impact students as well—work with your librarian to develop strategies to support students in their research, and consider investigating open educational resources or open textbooks to use in your courses.
• Prioritize open access publications for your research when possible, or pursue contracts that allow you to self-archive your work in W&L's Digital Archive.
• Consider how your department supports open access and how the value of open access publishing relative to traditional publishing is communicated within the department and to new faculty.

• IFLA Statement on Open Access

  The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) represents the interests of library and information services and their users, and advocates for access to information resources.

• SPARC

  Scholarly Publishing and Research Coalition- an international group of Universities, academic libraries, and other research institutions working to create a more open system of scholarly communication.

Sections of this guide were taken from or inspired by Bucknell University's Collection Development Sustainability Task Force Guide, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.