Hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money intended for research and education is being funnelled to giant international academic publishers each year, new research from the Australia Institute identifies.
The Ending profiteering from publicly funded research report reveals some academic publishers are generating profits approaching 40 per cent, rivalling tech giants such as Google or Apple – with publishers charging institutions and research groups extortionate costs to make their research ‘open access’ (freely available), as required by Australia’s two main funding bodies.
The report identifies ways to ensure that taxpayer money is spent on the research it was intended for, instead of lining the pockets of private academic publishing empires.
The Australia Institute is an independent public policy think tank based in Canberra and funded by donations from philanthropic trusts, individuals and commissioned research.
Key findings from the report show that Australia’s public research institutions funnel an estimated $1 billion into the pockets of private academic publishers every year. Institutions spend $300 million on journal subscriptions alone.
Insight into academic publishing profits
With one‑off access for a single article costing between AUD $40 and $65, Australia’s Chief Scientist has proposed a plan to pressure publishers to slash their exorbitant publishing and subscription fees – but the Australia Institute research highlights that this does not go far enough.
The Australia Institute recommends reforms to how funding bodies award research grants. These include revising grant criteria to reward publication in open access journals with much lower publishing fees; trialling a lottery-based system for the allocation of grants to reduce the emphasis on publication in grant applications; introducing grants specifically for researchers committed to open-science principles; encouraging the rapid publication of research results through preprint servers; and encouraging the development of institutional repositories focused on publishing original research.
“In a world of conspiracy theories and increasing political polarisation, access to the best research is essential to informed public debate,” says Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Australia Institute, Dr Kristen Scicluna.
“Instead, research is being hamstrung thanks to academic publishers exploiting taxpayers at every turn,” she says.
“Publishers do not pay researchers or peer reviewers, charge excessive open access publication fees, and impose unjustifiable subscription and access fees on research institutions and individuals. This amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars every year – much of it public money – spent on publication and subscription, not research and discovery.”
Dr Scicluna says “different methods to assess academic excellence, to disincentivise publication in exploitative, ‘prestigious’ journals and ensure better value for taxpayer money” are needed.
“Open science grants, modified lotteries, and institutional repositories to disrupt the business model of super-profitable academic publishing companies are all viable ways to pursue better value from our research funding,” she says.
“If we want to dismantle the academic publishing model and stop channelling public money to privately-owned publishing giants, we must reform our research grant system.”
