Study on the economic and technical evolution of the scientific ...

knowledge. Indeed, researchers want to
publish their own research in scientific journals
not only to have their findings widely distributed
but also to have them certified in terms of
quality, which helps both attracting the attention
of fellow researchers and also demonstrating
the value of the research, which in turn helps
the researcher getting promotions and/or
outside job offers. Scientific journals thus
fulfill a double role of certification and
dissemination of knowledge, the latter one
including the archiving of knowledge to
guaranteeing perennial access. It is the goal of
this study to evaluate the ways in which these
missions are fulfilled and whether in particular
the public funds used to contribute to these
missions are used in a cost-effective manner.
The stakes for public-decision makers are very
significant indeed: Not only is the output of
the scientific publishing process of crucial
importance for society’s development, but its
cost is also very relevant, because so much of
its activity is publicly funded: the output of
research is typically not bought by journals but
‘donated’ by publicly-funded researchers; to a
large extent, refereeing services for the
evaluation of research outputs are also heavily
subsidized by publicly-funded academic
institutions; and finally, journals are bought by
publicly-funded researchers or, more often
now, by publicly-funded libraries. It is therefore
crucial for public authorities to form a view on
the relative efficiency of the scientific publication
process.
Thus, we take the goal of this study to be to
provide an evaluation of the scientific
publication market in terms of its provision of
incentives to adequately create and disseminate
scientific knowledge. Concretely, we are therefore
interested in the ability of this market, including
the alternative models enabled by the new
technologies, to offer cost-effective and highquality
levels of certification, dissemination
and archiving services to the research
community.
1.3. SETTING THE SCENE:
OVERVIEW OF THE ECONOMIC
AND POLICY CONTEXT
1.3.1. THE ECONOMIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL CONTEXT
As publication has a key role in the overall
research process, the number of journal
articles published has been roughly proportional
to the growth in the number of scientists.
Unsurprisingly, scientific publishing has also
become a significant economic activity.
The core STM publishing market is estimated
between USD 7 billion and USD 11 billion
(OECD 2005; note that in 2001 OECD countries
allocated USD 638 billion to R&D).
In the last 30 years, a constant topic of debate
has been the price of scientific journals, which
has been steadily increasing. In the period
1975-1995, dubbed the “serials crisis”, journal
prices increased 200%-300% beyond inflation.
This price evolution was accompanied by a fall
in subscriptions by individual researchers and
libraries. Indeed, journal prices far outpaced
the evolution of library budgets, which in fact
did not increase as fast as total academic
research budgets. The pressure on library
budgets resulted in reduced journal subscription
as well as crowding out of some alternatives
like monographs.
As of 1995, building upon ICT developments,
publishers started to adopt digital delivery and
provide online access to their journals through
high-performance search platforms.
New technologies and the internet have
dramatically improved the accessibility of
scientific publications for researchers, but
actual access to the literature still relies on
their library’s ability to pay the subscriptions.
Indeed, journal prices have kept increasing
faster than inflation, though at a slower rate
than during the previous 20 years, and
electronic access fees bear an additional
burden on libraries’ budgets.
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