75% of European spending on scientific journals goes to ‘big five’ publishers

A new analysis of scientific publishing costs across Europe reveals ‘staggering’ differences in the prices paid to the five biggest publishers.

The European Universities Association (EUA) found that overall expenditure by 26 European countries was €597 million (£515 million) in 2017. But 75% of that – some €451 million – was spent on subscriptions to journals published by the ‘big five’: Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley, Taylor & Francis and the American Chemical Society. Together they accounted for 56% of articles published.