[GOAL] Re: Springer for sale - implications for open access?

[David Prosser]

Unless you believe that private companies should not be allowed to run scholarly publishing services (a position I don't hold) then I don't see any implications.  I guess any new owner may feel that the OA business is not profitable enough, in which case they will either a) put prices up and risk pricing themselves out of the market, b) lower costs and risk losing out to competitors who provide better services or c) exit the OA journal publishing busy entirely.  In any case, all the papers that Springer has already published OA will remain OA.


David



On 10 Oct 2012, at 17:44, Heather Morrison wrote:

> According to Mark Kleinman, the private equity owners of Springer (EQT, a private investment company in Sweden and the Government Investment Corporation of Singapore) are making moves to solicit offers to purchase Springer. Details:
> http://news.sky.com/story/995576/academic-publishing-giant-springer-for-sale
> 
> Springer is the world's second-largest scholarly publisher (after Elsevier), and owner of BioMedCentral. 
> 
> This might be a good time to start thinking about the implications of private ownership of scholarly publishing. For example, my understanding (please correct me if I am wrong) is that Springer was actively involved in lobbying for gold UK cash for CC-BY from RCUK, and that one of the rationales for providing this funding is to support UK-based industry. This puzzles me for many reasons; one is that the major beneficiaries of this policy are not UK-based at all, and the actual UK-based commercial outfits (Elsevier, Informa.plc also known as Taylor & Francis, Routledge etc.) are likely to be hurt by this policy and are likely opposed to it. The largest OA via CC-BY publishers are BioMedCentral, with an office in London but ownership in Sweden and Singapore, and PLoS, with a principle US base.  Again, corrections appreciated.
> 
> At any rate, even if Springer currently were UK-owned, what happens when it is sold? There are no guarantees that the company will be bought by an organization with a philosophical commitment to open access. Considering the price, the only likely guarantee is that the next owner will have a firm commitment to making profits for private owners.
> 
> BioMedCentral and PLoS have done outstanding work as OA publishing pioneers and developed practices that are good models for others. However, when planning for the future of OA, it is important to take into account the environment in which these organizations work. In the commercial for-profit sector, changes of ownership and/or management, often accompanied by changes of direction, are much more common than new companies developing practices that then become the traditions for decades and centuries that would be needed to ensure ongoing open access.
> 
> best,
> 
> Heather Morrison, MLIS
> Doctoral Candidate, Simon Fraser University School of Communication
> http://pages.cmns.sfu.ca/heather-morrison/
> The Imaginary Journal of Poetic Economics
> http://poeticeconomics.blogspot.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
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