UK Releases STM Inquiry Transcripts

The UK Parliament has released the uncorrected transcripts of the Science and Technology Committee's recent Inquiry in STM Publishing. The hearings took place over two days, March 1 and March 8, and followed up on written testimony offered prior to the hearings.

The first session featured witnesses Robert Campbell from Blackwell, Richard Charkin from Nature Publishing Group, and John Jarvis from Wiley. When MP Brian Iddon asked why journal prices have risen an average of 58 percent over the past five years when the retail price index (RPI) had risen just 11 percent, Blackwell's Campbell characterized those figures as misleading. "Many libraries get their journals through negotiated deals," he explained. "So there is another statistic which is more important...access."

The committee was noticeably deferential to Reed Elsevier CEO Crispin Davis and CEO of Elsevier's Science and Technology division Arie Jongejan, witnesses in the second session before the committee on March 1. Unlike the first panelists, Davis was asked to open his session with a monolog, in which he effectively contrasted Elsevier's price increases of 6.2 percent to 7.5 percent annually with a flurry of impressive international statistics.

Surprisingly, for the largest and perhaps most controversial STM publisher, Davis was not asked to expand on the statistics he offered, and subsequent questions only barely touched on hot-button issues for Elsevier such as consolidation and pricing practices.

On March 8, the committee heard remarks from Sally Morris, CEO of the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP), Julia King, CEO of the Institute of Physics, and Martin Richardson, managing director of Oxford University Press's journals program. In stark contrast to the experience with Elsevier, the questions for this trio were wide ranging and their responses often challenged. For example, when asked if the panelists differentiated themselves from the market leaders, King responded yes and said her group was not "as pushy" as Elsevier—a statement contested by Gibson.

The committee's final session featured open access pioneers: Harold Varmus, CEO of the Public Library of Science (PLoS); Vitek Tracz, Biomed Central publisher; and Nigel Goddard, CEO of Axiope.

The session ended with a provocative question from MP Iddon—whether open access would kill scientific societies. "I certainly hope not," Varmus responded. "The societies need to survive, but they will need to do so by changing their business plan...so that they can continue to do their good work but not deny their members the advantage of open access."

The Science and Technology Committee will conduct a second phase of hearings in April and is scheduled to issue a report sometime this summer.

To access the uncorrected transcripts, go to www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmsctech.htm#uncorr.