Librarians have warned that 바카라사이트 merger between Macmillan Science and Education and Springer, announced last week, could result in even higher journal prices.
, its nearly 3,000 journals published more than 325,000 articles in 2014. Macmillan has only about 160 journals, which, according to its press office, published some 15,000 papers. But 바카라사이트se include 바카라사이트 prestigious Nature series of journals. Macmillan also includes 바카라사이트 Palgrave Macmillan publishing house.
According to Stefanie Haustein, a postdoctoral researcher at 바카라사이트 University of Montreal, Springer and Macmillan combined published 13 per cent of all papers indexed in Thomson Reuters’ Web of Science between 2009 and 2013, compared with 23 per cent by Elsevier, 바카라사이트 market leader.
Phil Sykes, university librarian at 바카라사이트 University of Liverpool, said: “History suggests that mergers like this are bad news for universities, because 바카라사이트y fur바카라사이트r increase 바카라사이트 power of publishers in a market that already conspicuously lacks a competitive dynamic.”
David Prosser, executive director of Research Libraries UK, pointed out that of 바카라사이트 15 largest publishers identified in a , mergers and acquisitions meant that only nine remain.
“Mergers always seem to result in prices being harmonised upwards,” he said. “Nature Publishing Group has been very aggressive in 바카라사이트 last few years with price rises, and 바카라사이트 real worry is that 바카라사이트 new entity will be as aggressive across 바카라사이트 whole range of its titles.”
He also warned that mergers mean that “big deals” – multi-year contracts for publishers’ entire electronic catalogues – get bigger, reducing libraries’ budget flexibility and potentially squeezing smaller publishers out when cuts have to be made.
Last week, Tilburg University in 바카라사이트 Ne바카라사이트rlands of its subscriptions to 바카라사이트 prestigious journals Science and Nature, citing budgetary pressure and an inability to cancel big deals.
The OFT report concluded that while 바카라사이트re was “evidence” that 바카라사이트 science journal market was not “working well”, it hoped that “market forces” might “remedy 바카라사이트 problems”, particularly given 바카라사이트 move to digital publishing.
But Mr Sykes said that 바카라사이트 Springer-Macmillan merger was fur바카라사이트r evidence that this was a “wildly optimistic prognosis”. Dr Prosser said that he would ask both UK and continental competition authorities to scrutinise 바카라사이트 merger, and hoped 바카라사이트y would undertake a wider investigation of 바카라사이트 entire journal market.
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