Investing monopoly power by large publishers in the open access journal market

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K01663
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 07040:Economic policy-related
• Research Institution: Meiji University
• Principal Investigator: Asai Sumiko 明治大学, 政治経済学部, 専任教授 (00329476)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: オープンアクセス / 論文処理料 / 大手出版社 / 独占力行使

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Large publishers enlarge portfolios of open access journals through three strategies: the launch of new journals, mergers with other publishers, and partnering with research institutions. Consequently, they set higher article processing charges in the oligopolistic market. Moreover, manuscript submissions are insensitive to article processing charges, suggesting that publishers are able to easily raise them. The partnerships between research institutions and large publishers and authors’ choice of journals have led to financial barriers to publishing open access articles.

Free Research Field

産業組織論

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

オープンアクセスジャーナルは、購読価格の高騰の下で、研究成果の伝搬に欠かせない手段である。しかし、研究機関や著者の行動が、経済的負担の増加を招く一面があることが、本研究結果から示された。本研究の結果は、今後の健全なオープンアクセスの推進に当たっての一助となる。