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

[Michael Eisen]

Remember, please, that PLoS is a not for profit organization and, while
this is not an ironclad guarantee of its long-term adherence to its
founding principles, it is very different than a for-profit publisher owned
by a large multi-national company obligated to maximize return for its
investors.

On Wed, Oct 10, 2012 at 9:44 AM, Heather Morrison <hgmorris at sfu.ca> 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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>



-- 
Michael Eisen, Ph.D.
Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Associate Professor, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology
University of California, Berkeley
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