[open-science] [Open-access] Data expedition idea - scholarly publishing income

Thu Nov 21 20:54:37 UTC 2013

I agree that this is very important. I have no first-hand experience, but
suggest that at least two publishers, OUP and CUP, as member departments ot
universities, will legally have to answer FOI requests for information. I
have no idea whether their profits are acceptable. We may be able to use
them as calibration/controls on things like:
* how many staff are employed in what departments
* what percentage of revenue is spent on X, Y, Z
* what profits are re-invested
* how much is spent on "public good" (e.g. running conferences)

I suspect a full investigation of a publisher may have to work on
externable observables (staff complement, local taxes, etc.) as well as
income (which may be difficult to determine).

On Thu, Nov 21, 2013 at 5:01 PM, Bjoern Brembs <b.brembs at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Thursday, November 21, 2013, 4:46:14 PM, you wrote:
>
> > A few questions:
> > Do you think this is a suitable topic for
> > exploration?
>
> It would be fantastic, I would even say necessary to have that sort of
> data just to be able to make any meaningful projection of what kinds of
> reform are feasible.
>
> Especially the kind of revenue streams from scholarly journal publishing
> (as opposed to scholarly publishing in general) are difficult and/or
> expensive to obtain. I have seen such analyses from respected financial
> firms which cost beyond $2k to read (talk about exorbitant TA).
>
> Open access to financial data like these will likely not be easy, but
> would be very valuable (and probably cost some companies a lot of money, if
> they can't sell their analysis, e.g. Outsell).
>
> >   Does anyone feel strongly about this and would like to coordinate the
> project?
>
> I would like to coordinate, but not being an economist, I feel highly
> inadequate for such a task.
>
> Good luck!
>
> Bjoern
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> Björn Brembs
> ---------------------------------------------
> http://brembs.net
> Neurogenetics
> Universität Regensburg
> Germany
>
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-- 
Peter Murray-Rust
Reader in Molecular Informatics
Unilever Centre, Dep. Of Chemistry
University of Cambridge
CB2 1EW, UK
+44-1223-763069
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