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Political interest in scholarly publishing seems to increase year-on-year. Whether because of the perception that publishers are taking money out of the system, the persuasive (on the face of it) argument that publicly funded research should be freely available to the public, or the feeling that freedom to information is a vote winner with no downside, political pressure is mounting on our industry. On the other-hand, scholarly publishing is a success story. It is an innovative industry that employs 150,000 people worldwide with a market size of $20 billion. So what are the motivations for this political pressure and what is the publishing industry doing to correct misconceptions and misunderstandings and demonstrate the value that the industry adds to scholarship and to society?
