iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Mark A. Hanson @hansonmark.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

We wrote the Strain on scientific publishing to highlight the problems of time & trust. With a fantastic group of co-authors, we present The Drain of Scientific Publishing: a 🧵 1/n Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820 Strain: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/... Oligopoly: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...

A table showing profit margins of major publishers. A snippet of text related to this table is below.

1. The four-fold drain
1.1 Money
Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for
whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who
created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis,
which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024
alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit
margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher
(Elsevier) always over 37%.
Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most
consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial
difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor &
Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American
researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The
Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3
billion in that year.

A figure detailing the drain on researcher time.

1. The four-fold drain

1.2 Time
The number of papers published each year is growing faster than the scientific workforce,
with the number of papers per researcher almost doubling between 1996 and 2022 (Figure
1A). This reflects the fact that publishers’ commercial desire to publish (sell) more material
has aligned well with the competitive prestige culture in which publications help secure jobs,
grants, promotions, and awards. To the extent that this growth is driven by a pressure for
profit, rather than scholarly imperatives, it distorts the way researchers spend their time.
The publishing system depends on unpaid reviewer labour, estimated to be over 130 million
unpaid hours annually in 2020 alone (9). Researchers have complained about the demands of
peer-review for decades, but the scale of the problem is now worse, with editors reporting
widespread difficulties recruiting reviewers. The growth in publications involves not only the
authors’ time, but that of academic editors and reviewers who are dealing with so many
review demands.
Even more seriously, the imperative to produce ever more articles reshapes the nature of
scientific inquiry. Evidence across multiple fields shows that more papers result in
‘ossification’, not new ideas (10). It may seem paradoxical that more papers can slow
progress until one considers how it affects researchers’ time. While rewards remain tied to
volume, prestige, and impact of publications, researchers will be nudged away from riskier,
local, interdisciplinary, and long-term work. The result is a treadmill of constant activity with
limited progress whereas core scholarly practices – such as reading, reflecting and engaging
with others’ contributions – is de-prioritized. What looks like productivity often masks
intellectual exhaustion built on a demoralizing, narrowing scientific vision.

A table of profit margins across industries. The section of text related to this table is below:

1. The four-fold drain
1.1 Money
Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for
whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who
created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis,
which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024
alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit
margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher
(Elsevier) always over 37%.
Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most
consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial
difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor &
Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American
researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The
Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3
billion in that year.

The costs of inaction are plain: wasted public funds, lost researcher time, compromised
scientific integrity and eroded public trust. Today, the system rewards commercial publishers
first, and science second. Without bold action from the funders we risk continuing to pour
resources into a system that prioritizes profit over the advancement of scientific knowledge.

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Stefanie Haustein @stefhaustein.scholcommlab.ca · 07/11/2025

80 download of my checklist of actionable items for any researcher to adopt to support an equitable and sustainable scholarly publishing landscape zenodo.org/records/1741... Still need to do this myself, but I'd love to see printouts on office doors or hallways ;) #AcademicSky #OpenAccess #DiamondOA

zenodo.org

For Equitable and sustainable scholarly publishing | Pour un édition scientifique équitable et pérenne [Checklist]

This bilingual checklist presents 13 concrete actions researchers can take to move toward a more equitable and sustainable scholarly publishing ecosystem.Each action is classified by career stage (all...

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Juan Pablo Alperin @juancommander.scholcommlab.ca · 21/10/2025

The #OpenScience movement aims to transform how scientists work with each other and with society. These shifts pull in different directions — and “scientific cultures” helps make sense of the tension. NEW BLOG: Tensions in Open Science and Scientific Culture www.scholcommlab.ca/2025/10/21/t...

scholcommlab.ca

Tensions in Open Science and Scientific Culture

Open Science (OS) holds a powerful promise: to serve society by providing universal public access to knowledge. But, as we continue to see OS be adopted across the world, it becomes increasingly cl…

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Juan Pablo Alperin @juancommander.scholcommlab.ca · 29/09/2025

JOB OPPORTUNITY: @pkp.sfu.ca is looking for a Managing Director! This is a rare opportunity to lead a highly impactful #scholcomm organization. Role works closely with me (Scientific Director) to provide strategic and operational leadership. Help us spread the word! pkp.sfu.ca/2025/09/17/h...

pkp.sfu.ca

PKP is hiring a Managing Director - Public Knowledge Project

The Public Knowledge Project, a Core Research Facility of SFU, invites applications for the position of Managing Director

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Mark Huskisson @markhusk.bsky.social · 23/09/2025

Probably the best role in open scholarly publishing. pkp.sfu.ca/2025/09/17/h...

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Stefanie Haustein @stefhaustein.scholcommlab.ca · 11/09/2025

Our analysis on possible effects of APC caps, which would limit grant money spending on publication fees, just like the NIH is considering for their updated public access policy, in the @lseimpactblog.bsky.social today 👇🏼#ScholCommLab #openaccess #publishingmarket

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Stefanie Haustein @stefhaustein.scholcommlab.ca · 03/09/2025

Here it is: www.scholcommlab.ca/2025/09/03/n... Haustein, S., Schares, E., Alperin, J.P., Camargo, F., Matthias, L., Céspedes, L., Poitras, C., & Strecker, D. (2025). APCs of 2,228 journals where NIH-funded authors published in 2025 (Version v1) [dataset]. Harvard Dataverse. doi.org/10.7910/DVN/...

scholcommlab.ca

NIH explores capping APCs: Let’s look at the evidence

by Stefanie Haustein, Eric Schares, Juan Pablo Alperin, Flavia Camargo, Lisa Matthias, Lucía Céspedes, Constance Poitras & Dorothea Strecker On April 30 2025, the US National Institutes of Heal…

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Abdelghani Maddi @amaddi.bsky.social · 03/09/2025

🚀 Exciting news for the #OpenScience community! 🎉 The COSMI Hub, part of the #OPENIT Project, is live! Explore a community-driven platform mapping OS initiatives worldwide. Discover, classify, and compare initiatives promoting openness. 💡 Check it out: amcm.shinyapps.io/openit/previ... #STIENID25

amcm.shinyapps.io

Open Science Initiatives Tracker

This dashboard provides a dynamic and community-driven overview of Open Science initiatives around the world.

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Samuel Moore @samuelmoore.org · 15/08/2025

Excellent news! "PLOS Biology will formally consider meta-research articles that are peer-reviewed on the MetaROR platform, collaborating with RoRI and AIMOS to improve the transparency of peer review in the field of meta-research." theplosblog.plos.org/2025/08/plos...

theplosblog.plos.org

PLOS Biology announces agreement to become a MetaROR partner journal - The Official PLOS Blog

Note: PLOS issued the following press release on Thursday, August 14th. SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Today, PLOS Biology announced a new agreement…

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Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 30/07/2025

Genocide from starvation apparently doesn't count if there was a preexisting condition according to the New York Times.

A tweet from NYTimes Communications (@NYTimesPR) reads:
"We have appended an Editors' Note to a story about Mohammed Zakaria al-Mutawaq, a child in Gaza who was diagnosed with severe malnutrition. After publication, The Times learned that he also had pre-existing health problems. Read more below."

Below the tweet is an image with text on a dark blue background. The text states:
“Children in Gaza are malnourished and starving, as New York Times reporters and others have documented. We recently ran a story about Gaza’s most vulnerable civilians, including Mohammed Zakaria al-Mutawaq, who is about 18 months old and suffers from severe malnutrition. We have since learned new information, including from the hospital that treated him and his medical records, and have updated our story to add context about his pre-existing health problems. This additional detail gives readers a greater understanding of his situation. Our reporters and photographers continue to report from Gaza, bravely, sensitively, and at personal risk, so that readers can see firsthand the consequences of the war.”
— A spokesperson for The New York Times.

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Juan Pablo Alperin @juancommander.scholcommlab.ca · 16/06/2025

Today, the #scholcommlab published a Statement of Support for PACBI Principles. With it, I reject my university's (SFU's) complicity in the ongoing genocide in Gaza, and call them out for restricting my ability to direct the work of @pkp.sfu.ca in a principled way. www.scholcommlab.ca/pacbi/

scholcommlab.ca

Rejecting Complicity: ScholCommLab’s Statement of Support for PACBI Principles - Scholarly Communications Lab | ScholCommLab

Rejecting Complicity: ScholCommLab’s Statement of Support for PACBI Principles In the wake of the genocide and scholasticide in Gaza, the […]

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Janne Pölönen @jpolonen.bsky.social · 11/06/2025

📢 Our new study challenges the prevailing narrative that a few commercial publishers dominate global scholarly publishing! Read the preprint: Beyond the oligopoly: Scholarly journal publishing landscapes in Latin America and Europe. doi.org/10.31235/osf...

doi.org

OSF

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Eric Schares @eschares.bsky.social · 21/05/2025

And lo it came to pass, as was foretold many moons ago. IEEE adds charge for depositing AAM with CC-BY. 6.7% of IEEE content ha[d] US federal funding 2017-2021. Of that, 62% was published Closed, for 4% of overall portfolio. Comparison graph about 80% down the page at ostp.lib.iastate.edu

Screenshot of Twitter post from Oct 27, 2023.
"For ACS, it's 20% FF, and 50% of that Closed, for 10% of overall portfolio most impacted by the #OSTP guidance.
This is a relatively high number, esp for a large volume publisher. Start at right side and work over, you see ACS as the only point with >50k volume and >10% FF closed
I wouldn't be surprised to see similar new charges attempted from other susceptible publishers, namely ACM, RSC, AGU, or even IEEE in the future."

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Danny Kingsley @dannykay68.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

WOW - how do these people lie straight in bed at night? IEEE is charging a 'Repository License Fee' (or should that be 'FEEE'?) "The RLF price is $1,275 for periodical articles and $400 for conference articles and is applicable only to AMs and not to VORs." bibliotheek.ehb.be:2580/repository-l...

bibliotheek.ehb.be

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Juan Pablo Alperin @juancommander.scholcommlab.ca · 19/05/2025

GREAT OPPORTUNITY: Please do some individual outreach for this position, and please apply even if you do not meet all the requirements. Postdoc studying #peerreview #preprints #scholcomm. www.scholcommlab.ca/join-us/hiri... Let's get the word out! Send on your mailing lists and social media!

scholcommlab.ca

Hiring: Postdoctoral Fellow on Preprints and Open Peer Review - Scholarly Communications Lab | ScholCommLab

Postdoctoral Fellowship on Preprints and Open Peer Review Description The Scholarly Communications Lab (ScholCommLab) at Simon Fraser University is seeking […]

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CWTS | Leiden University @cwts.nl · 06/05/2025

📆 Missed this news the first time around? You still have a week to apply to this fully-funded PhD position at our institute!

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Richard Sever @richardsever.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

So the tired "preprints shouldn't be cited because they're not peer reviewed" meme is back. Reminder these frequently cited items aren't peer reviewed either: Editorials Books Reviews [some not all] News reports Data Code Websites Social media posts Citations are just links...intent varies 1/2

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Érudit @erudit.org · 30/04/2025

📣 Aidez-nous à imaginer le futur d’Érudit ! Votre avis nous aidera à mieux comprendre vos besoins, vos priorités et les enjeux qui vous tiennent à cœur, afin d’orienter nos priorités pour les années à venir. 📝 Date limite: 16 mai 👉 Participez ici : apropos.erudit.org/consultation...

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Découvrabilité des contenus scientifiques en français @chaire-dcsf.bsky.social · 18/04/2025

La Chaire de recherche du Québec sur la découvrabilité des contenus scientifiques en français tiendra son tout premier colloque dans le cadre du congrès de l’@acfas.ca ! 📅 Rendez-vous le 5 mai, dès 8h30. La programmation complète est maintenant en ligne 👇 dcsf.cirst.ca/colloque-acf...

dcsf.cirst.ca

Colloque no32 - De la découvrabilité des contenus savants en français

Le 5 mai 2025, à l'École de technologie supérieure de Montréal (ÉTS). Consultez la pogrammation complète.

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Abdelghani Maddi @amaddi.bsky.social · 31/03/2025

📢 #Postdoc – Étude des revues en transition vers ou depuis des modèles d’OA Objet : Analyse des facteurs influençant les décisions des revues à adopter ou abandonner l’OA Pour plus d’informations, merci de consulter la fiche de poste : lnkd.in/eP_P9mey @gemass-socio.bsky.social @c-bz.bsky.social

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Professor Caroline Edwards @theblochian.bsky.social · 31/03/2025

Excited to be launching Open Journals Collective today! We're working with librarians, academics & university-based publishers to replace commercial TAs with a community-led alternative. This is designed to save libraries money & tackle the rampant inequalities of global academic publishing. #UKSG25

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cOAlition S @coalitions-oa.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

cOAlition S responds to Canada's Tri-Agency draft #OpenAccess Policy consultation with feedback on licensing options, preprint guidelines, and rights retention policies. Full response at:✍️ www.coalition-s.org/coalition-s-... #Plan_S #OpenScience

cOAlition S provides feedback on the Canadian Tri-Agency Open Access policy

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Stefanie Haustein @stefhaustein.scholcommlab.ca · 26/03/2025

The @volkswagenstiftung.de #ROARA project led by Isabella Peters @leibniz-gemeinschaft.de @zbw-leibniz.bsky.social now has a project webpage w/ infos & pretty graphs about the selection of countries and publishers: www.scholcommlab.ca/research/rep... #publishingMarket #academicPublishing #OpenAccess

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Ludo Waltman @ludowaltman.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

I just published a blog post arguing that the reform movements for research assessment and scientific publishing need to better align their agendas. This is crucial for the success of both movements. www.leidenmadtrics.nl/articles/ass... @leidenmadtrics.bsky.social

leidenmadtrics.nl

Assessment reform and publishing reform need to go hand in hand

The need to reform research assessment and scientific publishing practices is widely recognized. However, Ludo Waltman argues that the assessment and publishing reform movements will be successful onl...

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Martin Paul Eve @eve.gd · 25/03/2025

Two posts this week on the *technical* issues for OA scholarly publishers having their websites absolutely HAMMERED by AI harvesting bots for training: Eric Hellman (@gluejar.com): go-to-hellman.blogspot.com/2025/03/ai-b... Ian Mulvany (@ianmulvany.bsky.social): world.hey.com/ian.mulvany/...

go-to-hellman.blogspot.com

AI bots are destroying Open Access

There's a war going on on the Internet. AI companies with billions to burn are hard at work destroying the websites of libraries, archives, ...

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Stephen Pinfield @stephenpinfield.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

We're advertising for a postdoctoral research associate to work on this exciting new project www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DMD201/r... Come and join the team exploring open research practices in the humanities and social sciences information-studies.blogspot.com/2025/01/the-...

jobs.ac.uk

Research Associate at University of Sheffield

Apply now for the Research Associate role on jobs.ac.uk - the leading job board for higher education jobs. View details.

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Ludo Waltman @ludowaltman.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

Are you interested in supporting the transition to open research information and in contributing to a highly exciting open science initiative? Consider applying for the role of community manager for the Barcelona Declaration on Open Research Information! @cwts.nl

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Marc-André Simard @masimard.scholcommlab.ca · 27/02/2025

"If you believe having access to pricing data will support your negotiations, then please take a stand on removing confidentiality clauses. Otherwise, vendors, as we have shown, are happy to overcharge." katinamagazine.org/content/arti...

katinamagazine.org

Academic Databases and the Art of the Overcharge

Clarivate, Elsevier, and the American Chemical Society are comfortable pursuing a strategy of pricing discrimination. But libraries don’t have to go along with it. This data can help.

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petersuber @petersuber.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 26/02/2025

Kudos to #Canada's three major research-funding agencies for their draft all-green, zero-embargo, rights-retention #OpenAccess policy. science.gc.ca/site/science/en/inter… […]

fediscience.org

Original post on fediscience.org

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Marc-André Simard @masimard.scholcommlab.ca · 25/02/2025

Les organismes de financement de la recherche au Canada soumettent à l’avis du public une version révisée provisoire de la Politique des trois organismes sur le libre accès aux publications #libresccess #scienceouverte science.gc.ca/site/science...

science.gc.ca

Libre accès

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Marc-André Simard @masimard.scholcommlab.ca · 25/02/2025

Canada's federal granting agencies release the draft, revised Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications for public feedback science.gc.ca/site/science... #openaccess #openscience

science.gc.ca

Open Access

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Budapest Open Access Initiative @boaiopen.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

Today I'm pleased to announce that the BOAI, which first defined #OpenAccess, is transitioning into an org to support the development of equitable OA. For more, please see our blog post, which is being translated into Spanish and Portuguese. www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/news/boai-tr...

budapestopenaccessinitiative.org

BOAI Transitioning to Organization to Support the Development of Equitable Open Access – Budapest Open Access Initiative

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petersuber @petersuber.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 11/02/2025

I'm seeking expressions of interest from nonprofit organizations to take over the Open Access Tracking Project (#OATP, @oatp) and the open-source software on which it runs. Details in this Google doc: bit.ly/TransferOATP Contact me <peter.suber@gmail.com> if you have any questions or […]

fediscience.org

Original post on fediscience.org

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Marc-André Simard @masimard.scholcommlab.ca · 29/01/2025

Remind me how OpenAI trained their model again?

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LucyCes @lucyces.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

Full call for abstracts and submission platform this way 👇 www.4sonline.org/call_for_sub...

4sonline.org

Call for SubmissionsSearchMobile Menu

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M.J. Crockett @mjcrockett.bsky.social · 26/01/2025

Quite the indictment of AI products: they are more appealing to people who don't understand how they work and see them as magical The paper concludes: "businesses may benefit from targeting those with lower AI literacy" and "maintaining an aura of magic around AI" ✨ tinyurl.com/ynefd8zk

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Crossref @crossref.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

Are you into data and ready to make an impact in research? We're hiring two Data Scientists! Work with #scholarlymetadata, identify opportunities, and improve how research is shared globally. Excited? We'd love to hear from you! www.crossref.org/jobs/2025-01-16-da…

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Johan Rooryck @johanrooryck.bsky.social · 13/01/2025

At the launch of the EC-funded ALMASI project in Madrid, hosted by FECYT. Almasi means ‘diamond’ in Swahili.

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