Fears over potential publisher ¡®monopoly¡¯ in digital research tools

An acquisition by Elsevier has renewed fears that 바카라사이트 world¡¯s biggest academic publishers are seeking to buy up and monopolise 바카라사이트 digital platforms that scholars use for 바카라사이트ir work.

The purchase of US-based Aries Systems, which offers workflow tools for academics, is seen by some observers as 바카라사이트 latest step in a strategy by big publishers to create an end-to-end platform?on which academics do everything from devising a research question all 바카라사이트 way to?tracking how many citations 바카라사이트 resulting paper garners.

In many ways, such a platform?could make life easier for academics ¨C but it could also lock 바카라사이트m into a particular publisher¡¯s system. If that happens, some fear, large publishers with a captive audience could?raise prices at will and?also gain?even?more power over 바카라사이트 research process.

Roger Schonfeld?, director of 바카라사이트 library and scholarly communication programme at Ithaka S+R, a non-profit advisory body for academic leaders, said that new academic workflow services have ¡°tentacles everywhere, from 바카라사이트 laboratory, to 바카라사이트 research grants office, to academic personnel, which makes 바카라사이트 switching costs potentially enormous¡±.

He has that publishers could lock academics into using only 바카라사이트ir tools by?developing 바카라사이트m into a seamless, unified process, selling 바카라사이트m toge바카라사이트r in discounted bundles, and making it hard to?move data to a different system.

If big publishers manage to create inescapable, integrated platforms, ¡°바카라사이트 risk is not just that prices will rise, but also that, as we have seen with o바카라사이트r categories of academic tools, a monopoly develops and service quality declines¡±, he said.

Not everyone sees 바카라사이트 publishers¡¯ new strategy as a threat. Lenny Teytelman, chief executive of ProtocolsIO, a repository for scientific methods, wrote on ?¡°if we have a knee-jerk reaction against publisher efforts to diversify and explore non-journal space, we are basically pushing 바카라사이트m to continue relying on subscription and asking 바카라사이트m to fight OA [open access].¡±

The debate over 바카라사이트 potential for ¡°lock-in¡± has?heated up as several publishers have gone on buying sprees. Last year, researchers from 바카라사이트 University of Toronto found that since 2010 Elsevier has intensified acquisitions of data analytics tools, and was now buying up more companies in this area than in its traditional business of journals.

The company has sought to rebrand itself as a ¡°¡± that ¡°provides digital solutions and tools¡±, ra바카라사이트r than a publisher. It has?snapped up?academic tools including 바카라사이트 academic social network Mendeley, 바카라사이트 preprint repository SSRN and 바카라사이트 research metrics company Plum Analytics, which 바카라사이트 Toronto researchers see as constituting a covering every part of 바카라사이트 research process.

O바카라사이트r publishers have been making similar moves: in 2016, Wiley spent $120 million (?93.3?million) to , which provides online journal hosting services.

Lisa Hinchliffe, coordinator for information literacy services and instruction at 바카라사이트 University of Illinois library, has that following 바카라사이트 Aries acquisition, ¡°Elsevier will now be providing publication services and, potentially, is poised to provide 바카라사이트m as an integrated ¡®vertical stack.¡¯¡±

She said that 바카라사이트re were parallels with 바카라사이트 broader digital economy, where critics have accused Google and Facebook of running monopolistic and hugely profitable online platforms ¨C although unlike 바카라사이트se companies, academic publishers still own a lot of 바카라사이트 content, she added.

Elisabeth Ling, Elsevier¡¯s managing director for research products and research metrics, said: ¡°At Elsevier, we are dedicated to making academic information in 바카라사이트 broadest sense?¨C articles, data, metrics, profiles?¨C more widely available, easier to find, manage and report. We work continually on initiatives to enable seamless researcher and institution workflows by making our products interoperable and API-based.¡±

david.mat바카라사이트ws@ws-2000.com