Arash Abizadeh (McGill University) publishes an opinion piece in The Guardian about an initiative challenging the dominance of the intellectual cartel formed by five of the largest American publishing houses. The goal of the initiative is to promote a “diamond” open-access journal, published by the Open Library of Humanities, ensuring that anyone can access the journal’s articles and that the broader intellectual and academic community be provided with a service that guarantees final products at a reasonable price.

Abizadeh explains that the initiative came from a feeling of discouragement shared by his co-editors, which led to the decision to resign en masse from the journal of Philosophy & Public Affairs. He notes that he felt a strong responsibility to help build collective momentum towards a better arrangement, a publishing model that would not take for granted public resources to fuel the profits of private corporations.

On the dominance of major American publishing houses, Abizadeh writes:

“Not only do these publishers [the “big five” commercial publishers – Elsevier, Wiley, Taylor & Francis, Springer Nature, and SAGE] not pay us for our work; they then sell access to these journals to the very same universities and institutions that fund the research and editorial labour in the first place. Universities need access to journals because these are where most cutting-edge research is disseminated. But the cost of subscribing to these journals has become so exorbitantly expensive that some universities are struggling to afford them. Consequently, many researchers (not to mention the general public) remain blocked by paywalls, unable to access the information they need. […]

Even more astonishing is the fact these publishers often charge authors for the privilege of publishing in their journals. In recent years, large publishers have begun offering so-called “open access” articles that are free to read. On the surface, this might sound like a welcome improvement. But for-profit publishers provide open access to readers only by charging authors, often thousands of pounds, to publish their own articles. Who ends up paying these substantial author fees? Once again, universities. […]

This trend is having an insidious impact on knowledge production. Commercial publishers are incentivised to try to publish as many articles and journals as possible, because each additional article brings in more profit. This has led to a proliferation of junk journals that publish fake research, and has increased the pressure on rigorous journals to weaken their quality controls. It’s never been more evident that for-profit publishing simply does not align with the aims of scholarly inquiry.”