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antitrust lawsuit against major journal publishers

(2024-09-22 13:00:49) 下一个
A turning point in academic publishing?

In a landmark antitrust lawsuit, academic scientists have taken legal action against major journal publishers—including Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley, and others—claiming that their practices exploit the academic community and hinder scientific progress. The lawsuit focuses on a three-part scheme:

1?? Exploitation of labor: Scholars are required to provide peer reviews for free, with publishers profiting while researchers see none of the value from their unpaid work.

2?? Anti-competitive practices: Publishers require scholars to submit to only one journal at a time, reducing competition, delaying research dissemination, and hindering the advancement of knowledge (Jon Gruda
wrote something about this a while ago).

3?? Control over knowledge: Scientists are prohibited from sharing their research freely while it's under review, with publishers treating these submissions as their property and charging exorbitant fees for access.

This lawsuit not only calls out unethical practices but also highlights the wider impact on society. By delaying advancements in fields like cancer treatment, quantum computing, and climate change solutions, this system is slowing down vital scientific progress.

What does this mean for the future of academic publishing and scientific progress?

Here is a link: https://lnkd.in/eqr99NvY

hashtagAcademicPublishing hashtagAntitrust hashtagPeerReview hashtagResearch

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Shengwen Calvin Li, PhD,FRSB,FRSM,FSX,EIC

 

 
Add a comment…
 

Jason Thatcher (He/Him) • 2nd

Parent to a College Student | Tandean Rustandy Esteemed Endowed Chair, University of Colorado-Boulder | TUM Ambassador | Professor, Alliance Manchester Business School
One concern that I have with the broader discourse on publishing, is that many academics don’t understand the tremendous overhead that comes with supporting journals - while there is no doubt the publication system needs reform - we all need to be aware that this is not a cost less system - in fact - it’s very expensive to sustain.

So if we disassemble what we know, what will come next? And how will we know it will be better?

Bc many forms of Open Access have failed as a model
 
 
13 Replies on Jason Thatcher’s comment

Timo Lorenz (he/him)Author

Juniorprofessor in Work and Organizational Psychology | Researcher | Psychologist | Academic Leader | Geek
Yes, researchers are paid, but those funds are for conducting research, supporting students, managing labs, and publishing results—not for peer review work. Grants often cover salaries, equipment, travel, and publishing fees, but they don’t compensate for the extensive peer review process.

I receive about 5 review requests a week, which could take 20-30 hours to complete. Imagine working for your employer, then spending an additional 20-30 hours working for another company without compensation, while that company profits from your work. This is essentially what happens in academic publishing.

The issue is that scientific publishing is a highly profitable industry built on the unpaid labor of researchers, without fairly redistributing the value created.
 
 
 
 
 

Jason Thatcher (He/Him) • 2nd

Parent to a College Student | Tandean Rustandy Esteemed Endowed Chair, University of Colorado-Boulder | TUM Ambassador | Professor, Alliance Manchester Business School
Timo Lorenz that is the path that I struggle to see.

The publishers extract excessive rents from academics.

They need to invest some
Of their profit in

A) building scholarly communities
B) supporting participation in scholarly communities
C) encouraging our employers to acknowledge the work we do pro bono and more.

And

D) charge less for access?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Elias Julian Bork • 3rd+

(M.Sc.) Psychology & Technology || Volkswagen AG
Long overdue. I hope for an adjustment of all the aforementioned practices.
 
 
2 Replies on Elias Julian Bork’s comment

Timo Lorenz (he/him)Author

Juniorprofessor in Work and Organizational Psychology | Researcher | Psychologist | Academic Leader | Geek
We will see what will happen here.
 
 
 
 
 

Dr Nkululeko Fuyane (He/Him) • 3rd+

Marketing Practitioner & Academic | Strategic Account Manager | Researcher | Consumer Behaviour Expert | Entrepreneur |
Timo Lorenz this should be a class action, or replicated in other jurisdictions.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Jon Gruda • 2nd

Professor in Org Behavior | Anxiety, Leadership and Personality Research
(edited)
Thanks for sharing this Timo Lorenz. Just realized the lawsuit directly quotes from a piece I wrote last year
 
 
1 Comment on Jon Gruda’s comment

Timo Lorenz (he/him)Author

Juniorprofessor in Work and Organizational Psychology | Researcher | Psychologist | Academic Leader | Geek
Very interesting. I am curious to see how this will develop and what the effects will be.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Caitlynn Sendra, Ph.D. (She/Her) • 3rd+

Organizational Psychologist | Product Innovation Scientist
So important. Will be eagerly waiting to see the outcome
 
 
1 Comment on Caitlynn Sendra, Ph.D.’s comment

Timo Lorenz (he/him)Author

Juniorprofessor in Work and Organizational Psychology | Researcher | Psychologist | Academic Leader | Geek
Let’s see if it there is happening something or if it will get dismissed.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Sven Franke (he/him) • 3rd+

Antiberater, New Pay und New Work Vordenker & Experte, Thementreiber, Impulsgeber, Mitbestimmungsunterstützer & Feminist.
Was für Praktiken...
 
 
 
1 Comment on Sven Franke’s comment

Timo Lorenz (he/him)Author

Juniorprofessor in Work and Organizational Psychology | Researcher | Psychologist | Academic Leader | Geek
Es bleibt ein geniales Marktkonzept mit viel unbezahlter Arbeit und viel Geldern aus öffentlichen Töpfen.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Shafaq Aftab • 3rd+

Lecturer @ University Of Central Punjab | MS, MBA
Timo Lorenz I submitted my paper to Information Development, only to find out that one of the reviewers, Davood Ghorbanzadeh, had stolen my work and published it in Systems Research. I was devastated and felt completely betrayed. I wrote to the editor, explaining my concern about trusting the journal in the future, especially with another reviewer potentially doing the same thing. The editor asked me to contact Wiley about the matter, but the journal couldn’t be held responsible for the reviewer’s actions. In this case, how can we stop such unethical acts?
 
 
 
 
 

Anurag Banerjee • 3rd+

Understanding Data
I think scientists are themselves to blame. Publishing is easy these days, publish on the net … have peer review as well … we could easily do it ourselves cheaply. We dont need stupid page or number of paper restrictions.

What we need is a new list of peer reviewed journals publishing articles which are ranked highly.
 
 
 
 
 

Antonio H. Castro Neto • 2nd

Using science and technology to create a sustainable future
This is long overdue. We should move completely to an open publishing systems for dissemination of research such as the Los Alamos arxiv. Peer review should be eliminated. Readers should be able to judge by themselves the relevance of the research. The academic administrators who benefit the most of the current system will have to find a different way to judge the quality of the work done by their employees, namely, the scientists. The whole publishing system is rotten and needs change.
 
 
 
 
 

Bernie Quiroga, Ph.D. • 2nd

Associate Professor, Supply Chain Management @WVU. Academic, Operations Management/Business Analytics/Management Science.
(edited)
I feel really uncomfortable with the way the suit addresses issues.

1. There are disciplines that pay reviewers, and that involves submission fees from authors. And that doesn't translate into better reviews either.

2. The issue of multiple submission will actually end up in the same paper getting published multiple times. That still happens today, on occasion, but it is illegal and grounds for retraction if caught. No one should want to buy the same IP that someone else bought. It renders the IP worthless. With multiple simultaneous submission you are doing exactly that.

3. I do agree that having your work pay walled is a problem, but the costs behind the product are there. This is about the one aspect I could sympathize with the lawsuit, but not asking for "free" access, but for "affordable" access.

In many ways, as one of the authors who publish under this model, I don't believe this legal action represents me appropriately. It throws the bathtub out with the baby. Let's have more efficient review cycles. Let's have affordable access to the journals. But let's not forget that many of the other "solutions to practices" will generate even worse practices than the ones that the suit seeks to eradicate.

My two cents. YMMV.
 
 
5 Replies on Bernie Quiroga, Ph.D.’s comment

Mary Kinahan (She/Her) • 2nd

Assistant Professor of Organisational Psychology and HRM
Genevieve Bart this is so true. When you explain this to anyone not in academia and/or library sciences - it really seems like such a strange system. I'm surprised universities still support it
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Ed Cook (He/Him) • 3rd+

Research Fellow in Circular Economy Systems for Waste Plastics
There are lots of problems with the way academic publishjng is set up, but not following the logic of the three points made here:

1) I don’t think most of us provide peer review for free - I don’t, I’m on a salary and my work is paid by funders - once it’s in University hands it’s public money - so the public pay for the peer review.
2) Submitting to one journal at a time seems sensible to me. I don’t want to waste the time of peer reviewers and editors, only to decide at the last minute to publish elsewhere. It could also lead to poorer quality because people could send to lots of places and then pick the one which happened to be easiest to get through.
3) we’re not prevented from sharing whilst it’s under review - we are all free to issue preprints - pre-peer reviewed science should be treated with caution anyway.

Most of the comments seem to be positive about these three points - can someone explain what I’m not getting here?
 
 
7 Replies on Ed Cook’s comment

Dirk Riehle • 3rd+

Professor of Computer Science @ U. of Erlangen | Entrepreneur/ship | Product Strategy | Open Source | Inner Source
Nope, and I don't expect my employer to get compensated by Elsevier for my services as long as colleagues provide their services for free. But I also then don't review for Elsevier.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Marc van der Schee • 3rd+

Medtech & TechBio valorisation & market-entry | Start-up entrepreneur | Business Strategy | Medical devices
Thanks for sharing! Overdue that this changes. The whole system needs a drastic overhaul. To be honest, with current digital media who needs a journal anyway? Why not have an open forum for scientific discourse with peer review provided non anonymously and public datasets linked to it. This should run as a foundation as no profit should be made out of academic publishing. I’m betting if institutions pay only a fraction of their journal access costs to such a foundation it would cover the costs and everyone is better of! Hope something like this will happen one day!
 
 
 
 
 

Michaël Hemmer • 3rd+

Senior Research Scientist at University of Colorado Boulder
(edited)
Three comments on this:
- most of us would agree with the three points raised in the law suit but I don't see any plan on how to improve the system.
- if we were to allow simultaneous submission to more than one journal, i am pretty sure some people will manage to get the same work published in more than one journal.
- following on this, could we somehow address the incredible flooding of mostly meaningless results AND the people who specialize in results that are hardly reproducible ?
 
 
 
 
 

Przemko Tylzanowski • 2nd

Professor at The University of Leuven, Belgium
Finally!!!!
First I need to get the money to do the research, then I need money to publish my own work and THEN I need money to access my own work. So publishers get money from me to publish, from me to access and form the others to access that as well. An interesting, HIGHLY predatory business model. ANd I ma glad and support someone who decided to stop that. As scientists, with a knife on our throat to publish, we simply cave in. But, Timo, you have my FULL SUPPORT.
 
 
 
 
 

Bill Shannon • 2nd

BioRankings, Co-Founder and Managing Partner (Analytics)
(edited)
I have never been 'required' to peer review and my benefit from publishing in these journals was receiving tenure then professor emeritus - not all compensation is monetary

Any writer submits to one publisher at a time (send a non-science essay to Time and tell them Newsweek is also looking at it (if Newsweek still exists))

I share my results pre-submission, while in press, and post-submission so science knowledge is not hindered
 
 
 
 
 

Chris William Callaghan • 3rd+

Anglia Ruskin University
(edited)
Open online review might make the process fairer and accountable. And quicker. Let's benchmark other fields. Recognizing quality is the goal, but the quality of the review process needs to be maximized without it taking years. Eliminate subjectivity in review as much as possible by giving 'stars' and more remuneration to those reviewers who are able to justify or even reference their review decisions online. Let's become obsessed with the validity of the review process itself. More transparency might help.
 
 
 
 
 

Seyed Moghadas (He/Him) • 3rd+

Director, Agent-Based Modelling Laboratory at York University
I am fine with the current model; lets see what happens, but I doubt if this lawsuit goes beyond LinkedIn board. What we should focus on is to find a solution for a more robust review process to prevent garbage from being published… that is the real problem now. Yet, somehow people found publishing garbage is fine but charging for publishing it is not !!!
 
 
 
 
 

Ikechukwu Okoli • 3rd+

Research Associate at The University of Kiel | Data Governance
I think it's time for universities to disentangle academic success and progression from publishing with these large academic publishers. That's what's fuelling the desperation amongst scientists and hence the anti- competition and unethical practices amongst these publishers.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Lamya Alabdulkarim • 3rd+

R&D ecosystem | Forward strategist | Health Metrics | Organizational Transformation Modeling | Talent Development | Networking Strategist | Health | Speech-Pathology,Swallowing | Mentor | Cross cultural transferability
All researchers, especially at universities who depend on publication points for promotion, go through “publication pain”. AI business models and blockchain may provide solutions for automated & decentralized publishing & data repositories models.

.

### 5. **Transparent Fee StructuresDevelop AI tools that analyze and compare publishing fees across platforms, helping researchers choose more equitable options promoting transparency, researchers can make informed decisions and advocate for fairer practices.
 
 
 
 
 
(edited)
Finally, someone is taking the first step. I hope this marks the end of the bureaucracy in journals. They charge for publishing but don't pay for the reviews. Reviews are often not given priority, and are left until the last minute before the deadline. How many reviewers actually allocate enough time to understand the paper? Reviewers should be paid for their work and should not be anonymous. If you agree to do the work, you should take responsibility for it. How many excellent projects have been rejected because of these professionals who sometimes don't even understand the project? I wonder how many deserving papers or projects have been rejected for awards due to this.
 
 
 
 
 

Fahad Mehmood • 3rd+

Secondary School Teacher of Physics at City science Higher Secondary school
Is any job available as a secondary school Physics teacher. I have an experience of 8 years as a secondary school teacher of Physics.
 
 
 
 
 

Chris William Callaghan • 3rd+

Anglia Ruskin University
(edited)
Pay us for excellent reviews and have everything online for all to see- the entire process- give us the 4 stars as reviewers. 3 weeks for the process, if possible, and appropriate. Or AI will create even more uncertainty. Let's reward academic labour to include in this supply cain.
 
 
 
 
 

Roman Croitor (He/Him) • 3rd+

Data Analyst, PhD in Biology
Yes, I agree with all these points. I know I am being exploited and disrespected by major publishers. I create unique scientific content for journals, ensure the quality of their content, and lend them my scientific reputation, but it's not appreciated. That's why I prefer to publish in open-access journals, and recently, I accepted a proposal from a small publisher to write a book. At least I'll gain something to improve my standard of living. The way authors and reviewers of scientific articles are treated is truly problematic.
 
 
 
 
 

Roi Shir Dishon (He/Him) • 3rd+

Research assistant and PHD Candidate - WHU
Finally!
I can't understand how the universities (who carries out most of those fees) didn't organize years ago to stop those bad practices
 
 
 
 
 
Absolutely! If you don't sign away your copyright, they will hold you hostage to publishing your work after a long and arduous review process. The alternative is foregoing the credit critical for advancement and increasing one's income.
 
 
 
 
 

Gabriele Scheler • 2nd

Computational Neuroscience and Theoretical Biology
But the worst are the open access publishers! You cant publish without being rich. They harm the most bc they suppress science.
 
 
 
 
 

Ayyoob Sharifi • 3rd+

Professor at Hiroshima University
Let's hope this will make them change their exploitative policies!!
 
 
 
 
 

Dr. Rajesh K. Jain • 3rd+

Professor at Institute of Management, Nirma University, Ahmedabad, Gujarat
Journals ask reviewers to do the job without any remuneration, neither the author gets any compensation for the hard work...while publishers make money by selling those researches...it is ridiculous...needs fixing.
 
 
 
 
 

Chris William Callaghan • 3rd+

Anglia Ruskin University
(edited)
AI is changing the fabric of managenent practice on a monthly time scale. How can management AI scholars publish in top CABS journals if the work can take years to come out? What if review was paid, online, with something like a 3 week limit? Research is needed, with minimal delays, to guide AI for responsible and ethical AI outcomes at this critical time. Let's simply benchmark publishing practices in other fields that produce knowledge in real time. Many AI scholars are concerned about potential catastrophic and perhaps existential risks posed by technology in particular. We may struggle to get ahead of potentially catastrophic changes if knowledge is obsolete or outdated by the time it is published.
 
 
1 Comment on Chris William Callaghan’s comment
 
 
I agree with point 1 and 2. Although it is mentioned that the review process will only take 2-3 weeks, sometimes it takes 6 month and they also fail to secure viewers. So basically review process doesnt make any effective improvement in the manuscript.
 
 
 
 
 

Giuseppe Schiavone (He/Him) • 3rd+

Associate Professor, University of South-Eastern Norway
Well as long as we delegate our decisional processes (hiring, promoting, …) to how publishers decide to rank research and researchers, we just keep complaining while feeding the monster with our own hands
 
 
 
 
 

Paolo Mazzanti • 3rd+

Professor of Geological Risks and Remote Sensing with passion for Technology Transfer. Experienced Founder, President and CEO of University spinoffs.
Where I can sign?
 
 
 
 
 
The issue of journals keeping manuscript for a 6 to 12 months with rejectioon or resubmition with major changes is a major issue that needs to be looked at. The worrying issue of 1 journal submission at a time is also something that is not right.
 
 
 
 
 

Tuyen Trung Truong • 3rd+

Professor at University of Oslo (UiO)
(edited)
Well, not just these publishers but other publishers are worth a lawsuit. Whatever is claimed, the peer review system is broken. No exception if it is from one of the two Cambridges or from one place in New Jersey.
 
 
 
 
 

Manish Kr Sharma • 2nd

30k+? RA IIMA? PhD Research Scholar, IIT Kharagpur | Former Research Intern at Ministry of Finance, GoI | MBA Finance (Gold Medalist) | UGC NET Qualified | B. Tech. ECE | 8+ Year Work-Ex | Ex - Parle Biscuits Ethiopia
(edited)
Good job ?
Hope to see a positive outcome
 
 
 
 
 

Richard A. Nisbett • 2nd

Sanctuary Scientist and Publicist, Jubilee Basin Biodiversity Hotspot, a global refugium
All those practices are indeed hindrances on the margins of unethical collusion. Interesting case! Thanks.
 
 
 
 
 

Krishnakumar R N • 3rd+

Research and learning in signal processing, communication, machine learning and data analytics. Interested in Mathematics and it's applications in engineering.
My advisor had talked back in 2008 about bad publishing ethics.
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