A lot of dollars - Reynermedia (Flickr CC BY 2.0).
The publishing model for academia is so broken it verges on satire. Globally, it costs taxpayers and researchers hundreds of millions of dollars every year that could be far better spent on research.
The only people benefiting are the publishing companies themselves. The five largest publishers, which make up 53% of all academic journals published, have profit margins ranging from 23%-42%.
To give you a sense of how much this is, the total turnover of academic publishing in 2011 was $9.4 billion a year. Yes, you read that right, billion. And most of that money came from the public purse.
The only people benefiting are the publishing companies themselves. The five largest publishers, which make up 53% of all academic journals published, have profit margins ranging from 23%-42%.
To give you a sense of how much this is, the total turnover of academic publishing in 2011 was $9.4 billion a year. Yes, you read that right, billion. And most of that money came from the public purse.