Diamond

Publishers’ outcry at EU plans ignores potential for new partnerships, say Johan Rooryck and colleagues

On 23 May, the Council of the EU adopted a groundbreaking set of conclusions advocating high-quality, open, trustworthy and equitable scholarly publishing. The move drew widespread support from Europe’s academic community, including in a joint response from nine organizations representing funders, researchers and universities.

Some native open-access commercial publishers also welcomed the conclusions. The traditional academic publishing industry, however, was less enthusiastic. Caroline Sutton, chief executive of the trade association STM, was quoted as saying that the conclusions “support a move that would abolish an industry” and “usher in a state-defined system that could stymie academic freedom”.

It is regrettable that legacy publishers feel they must react in such extreme ideological terms. Their anxiety is unwarranted; instead, the conclusions are more likely to lead to an exciting era of public-private partnerships.

As policy documents go, the conclusions are damning. They express barely veiled irritation with legacy publishers, noting that their business and operational models have not kept pace with digitalisation, and that “the increasing costs of paywalls…cause inequalities and are becoming unsustainable”. Academic publishing increasingly looks like a service provider that refuses to listen to