6 scientific journal publishers accused of exploiting scholars

Lucina Uddin, a neuroscience professor at UCLA, filed a lawsuit last week in federal court in Brooklyn against publishers Elsevier, John Wiley & Sons, Sage Publications, Springer Nature, Taylor & Francis, and Wolters Kluwer, according to Reuters .

As a professor of Psychology at UCLA since July 2023, Professor Uddin has published over 175 articles and peer-reviewed more than 150 journals.

According to Ms. Uddin's lawsuit, the publishers being sued collectively earned more than $10 billion (246.2 trillion VND) in revenue from peer-reviewed magazines in 2023. Elsevier alone earned $3.8 billion from peer-reviewed magazines in 2023, with a profit margin of 38%, surpassing both Apple and Google.

The lawsuit also cites a study showing that in 2020, peer-reviewing scholars contributed work worth more than $1.5 billion. However, publishers invite scholars to peer-review scientific papers on a "voluntary and unpaid" basis.

"Many manuscripts wait for review for months, even years. And it's unfair that busy scholars put in their valuable labor to peer-review them but don't get paid," Uddin said.

The lawsuit also alleges that these publishers "tacitly agreed" with each other on manuscript acceptance by establishing a "rule of submitting manuscripts to only one journal," which violates the U.S. Antitrust Act.

Furthermore, the lawsuit condemns what Professor Uddin calls the "gag rule"—which prevents academics from freely sharing scientific advances in their manuscripts while awaiting peer review.

Many scholars are forced to relinquish intellectual property rights to their research without receiving any benefits. Meanwhile, publishers charge "the maximum the market can tolerate" for access to scientific knowledge, the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit portrays the academic journal publishing industry as a monopoly that manipulates the labor market and exploits young scholars whose careers depend on the speed of publication.

Publishers invite academics to peer-review scientific articles on a voluntary basis, without compensation.

Dean Harvey, the lawyer representing Professor Uddin, argues that the for-profit academic publishing industry has made billions of dollars by "exploiting the goodwill and efforts of talented scholars and taxpayers' money—which funds research projects." Harvey is attempting to elevate this lawsuit to class action status, representing hundreds of thousands of potentially involved parties.

Professor Sune D. Müller of the University of Oslo (Norway) argues that the current journal publishing system forces academics to choose lower-quality research projects in order to publish quickly in less prestigious journals, according to University World News .

Mr. Müller hopes that winning the case will bring fair competition to the publishing industry, leading publishers to pay peer reviewers and shorten the processing time for scientific papers.

In response to the information, publisher Wiley called the allegations "baseless." Wolters Kluwer, Elsevier, and other publishers declined to comment or have not issued any statements regarding the lawsuit, according to Reuters .

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/6-nha-xuat-ban-tap-chi-khoa-hoc-bi-to-boc-lot-hoc-gia-18524092410581965.htm