(June 11, 2015) A
study at the University of Montreal shows that the market share of the five
largest research publishing houses reached 50% in 2006, rising, thanks to
mergers and acquisitions, from 30% in 1996 and only 20% in 1973. "Overall,
the major publishers control more than half of the market of scientific papers
both in the natural and medical sciences and in the social sciences and
humanities," said Professor Vincent Larivière of the School of Library and
Information Science, who led the study. "Furthermore, these large
commercial publishers have huge sales, with profit margins of nearly 40%. While
it is true that publishers have historically played a vital role in the
dissemination of scientific knowledge in the print era, it is questionable
whether they are still necessary in today's digital era."
Professor Larivière and his colleagues obtained their
results by analyzing all scientific articles indexed in the Web of Science
database and published between 1973 and 2013. Then, to trace the evolution of
journal ownership in the complex and dynamic market of academic publishing, the
researchers reviewed the history of mergers and acquisitions and the
publishers' online press releases as well as their profiles. "Looking more
closely at the various research disciplines, we noted that some disciplines
have escaped the control of the major publishers," said Larivière. “This
is the case of biomedical research, physics, and the arts and humanities.