Academic Publishing Impacts Libraries
The consolidation occurring in academic publishing and the related rise in cost of scholarly journals received national coverage by CBC News in June. The news item was prompted by a paper published in the multidisciplinary open access journal PLOS One The Oligopoly of Academic Publishers in the Digital Era. The five largest publishers now publish over 50 percent of all science research papers, and 70 per cent of all social science papers. Also included is a discussion of the economic impact of this consolidation on academic libraries which are responsible for between 68% and 75% of publishing revenues.