[Exclusive] "Price Reflects Demand"... Revising 'Subscription Fee Abuse' by Renowned Overseas Academic Journals

Ministry of Science and ICT Moves to Legislate Open Access Including Mandatory Public Research Paper Disclosure

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] The government has taken steps to eradicate the “subscription fee abuse” by overseas renowned academic journals, where prices are set arbitrarily.

On the 10th, the Ministry of Science and ICT announced that it is conducting a research project commissioned to the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information for the “legislation of open science.” While major countries are promoting open science, which involves opening public research outcomes and processes, the goal is to actively implement open science policies domestically, such as expanding access to public research papers (open access).

The Ministry of Science and ICT is particularly establishing measures to eradicate the “subscription fee abuse” by foreign academic journals. Currently, the international academic journal market is dominated by the so-called Big 3 publishers?Wiley, Elsevier, and Springer Nature?who publish journals like Nature, Science, and Cell, holding about 70-80% of the market share. They not only charge authors article processing charges (APCs) for publishing papers but also collect huge subscription fees (7.6 billion euros or 10.51 trillion KRW in 2015) from universities, libraries, and research institutions, causing international controversy. Last year alone, they collected 180.1 billion KRW from domestic universities, libraries, and research institutions. The subscription fees have been increasing annually by 7-8%, and the publishers enforce “big deal” contracts that bundle all journals together, intensifying the abuse. Domestic universities, libraries, and research institutions are struggling financially. For example, Seoul National University had to cancel subscriptions to some other journals because it paid 2.7 billion KRW in electronic subscription fees to Elsevier alone this year.

It is also problematic that taxpayers’ money is spent again to access publicly funded papers. Approximately 60,000 domestic papers published annually in these journals (59,977 papers in 2019, based on corresponding authors) are de facto “public goods” funded by national R&D budgets (27.4 trillion KRW this year) or public and private research funds. However, as of 2019, only 41.8% (25,066 out of 59,977 papers) are available for full or limited free access, while the rest require paid subscriptions. Although the free access rate in most major countries reaches 60-70%, Korea’s rate is below the global average of 44.2%. The domestic academic journal market is also small-scale, with some small academic societies transferring copyrights cheaply to a few monopolistic companies, resulting in universities, libraries, and research institutions spending 18 to 20 billion KRW annually on subscription fees.

In response, the open access movement has been active worldwide since the early 2000s, mainly in Europe and North America. The idea is to pay only publishing fees (4 billion euros annually) instead of subscription fees, not transfer copyrights, and use open access journals that anyone can read. The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH, 2009), California (2018), France (2016), the Netherlands (2015), the European Commission, 17 national research funding agencies, and 7 private foundations (Plan S) have each implemented mandatory public access policies for public research papers.

The Ministry of Science and ICT plans to unify negotiation channels between domestic demand institutions and overseas journals, designate dedicated agencies and provide budget support, and build a public paper sharing platform through this legislation. However, challenges remain, such as conflicts with existing laws on copyright protection and illegal reproduction bans, as well as stakeholder interests.

Kim Young-eun, Director of the Science and Technology Information Analysis Division at the Ministry of Science and ICT, said, “We are collecting opinions and seeking solutions as there are issues to review and adjust, such as illegal reproduction problems,” adding, “We plan to complete the research project by the end of this year and start legislation next year.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.