[Irtalk] The Oligopoly of Academic Publishers in the Digital Era

[Ina Smith]

The consolidation of the scientific publishing industry has been the topic of much debate within and outside the scientific community, especially in relation to major publishers' high profit margins. However, the share of scientific output published in the journals of these major publishers, as well as its evolution over time and across various disciplines, has not yet been analyzed. This paper provides such analysis, based on 45 million documents indexed in the Web of Science over the period 1973-2013. It shows that in both natural and medical sciences (NMS) and social sciences and humanities (SSH), Reed-Elsevier, Wiley-Blackwell, Springer, and Taylor & Francis increased their share of the published output, especially since the advent of the digital era (mid-1990s). Combined, the top five most prolific publishers account for more than 50% of all papers published in 2013.

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0127502

Ina Smith
SciELO Planning Manager
Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf)

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Email: ina at assaf.org.za<mailto:ina at assaf.org.za>

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