The Guardian reported that publishers like Springer, Elsevier and others make 42% profits. If you know anything about the business world, that’s amazing. And of course, commenters have been scandalized. In my view, there’s no crime in making a healthy profit by providing something that people willingly buy.

The high profit margins do point at a profound problem with academic publishing: the reliance on an archaic business format. In previous centuries, journal publishers used to provide a vital service. They took care of assembling and delivering a print version of scientific research. In the 20th century, publishers were indispensable. Without them, academics relied on mimeos and xeroxes.

Since academic journals were only bought by scholars and libraries, the system relied on a lot of volunteer labor. Authors, editors, and reviewers all worked for free because they got university pay checks. Only the production staff – managing editors, publishers, type setters, etc. – got paid.

As the university system grew and became wealthier, publishers learned you could charge quite a bit for journals. The demand was inelastic and the buyers became wealthier. Library budgets are in the millions and some authors, such as in the biomedical fields, can even afford to pay for publication. Soon, thousand dollar subscriptions became routine. That’s normal when library administrators are told “you have to buy this.” Inefficiency abounds

As long as we replied on paper, we needed to live with this situation. High prices are normal in a system of inelastic demand, big bureaucratic budgets, and little competition (e.g., journals are not substitutes for each other). But that is no longer the case. It is now possible to go without the traditional publisher.

It’s called the Internet. Using modern software, it is now extremely easy to produce and distribute a journal. It can be done for a few thousand dollars a year. You need a proof reader, a type setter, and a web site manager. You’d also need to pay for an electronic submission website, but smaller journals could easily live with an email account that the managing editor uses. Rather than pay huge subscription fees, each author would pay for proof reading and type setting. Journals run by associations would simply be available for free at the association website. Any journal run by a department could be housed at the university website.

This is not a fantasy. As I noted in an earlier post, there is a journal called the “Public Library of Scince” or PLoS. The PLoS journals are free, peer reviewed, and open to the public. Already, they are publishing path breaking research that is having a wide impact. The only barrier to this model is the effort needed to band a bunch of people together to run the journal.

So the next time you see high journal prices, stop complaining. The solution is already here. The only question is what you will do to make it happen.