The expropriation of intellectual capital and the political economy of international academic publishing

Abstract

International commercial publishers derive massive profit from knowledge and expertise donated to them by higher education and research institutions, although little value is added in the publication process. Third World scholarship in particular is consequently at great risk, since access to published work is increasingly beyond its reach in terms of cost. Commercial practice and government bureaucracy (in South Africa the SAPSE system, for instance) have locked academics into an exploitative relationship. Aggregation in electronic publishing has had severe repercussions for libraries. The Public Library of Science pioneered a radical response with an online archive and later established open-access journals in direct competition with commercial publications. In reality, the latter own no more than a title and a subscription list. They are thus highly vulnerable to the potential of new publishing technology that challenges the commodification of knowledge. It is now feasible to place its custodianship in the hands of universities and other public bodies so that they become knowledge owners as well as producers, to the benefit of humankind as a whole.

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