Monopolies in Science Publishing. A Black Hole for Public Spending?

This paper provides a comprehensive account of the direct and indirect channels through which public expenditure benefits big academic publishing companies. Based on a meta-analysis of studies providing estimates of financial flows related to academic publishing and an accompanying survey, we estimate the annual financial flows of public expenditures to academic publishers in the field of social sciences in Austria. We find that about a fourth of annual basic public funding for academic research directly or indirectly benefits a small number of publishing companies. Based on our empirical findings we offer three main reform options for a more emocratic and egalitarian form of academic publishing.