Federal lawsuit accuses four major publishers of extorting article processing charges
A lawsuit filed under the U.S. False Claims Act accuses four major publishers of perpetrating a decade-long scheme to defraud the government by charging exorbitant article processing charges. The case, which became unsealed July 30, claims Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Informa forced U.S. research institutions to submit false claims to the government for reimbursement … Continue reading…
A lawsuit has been filed under the U.S. False Claims Act, accusing four major publishers of defrauding the government through exorbitant article processing charges (APCs). The case, which became unsealed on July 30, claims that Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley, and Informa coerced U.S. research institutions into submitting false claims for reimbursement.
The lawsuit alleges that the publishers charged up to 10 times the cost of processing the articles, often ranging from hundreds to thousands of dollars, while the actual costs are between $200 and $1,000. The government requires papers based on federally funded research to be freely available, and the publishers allegedly "extorted" APCs and copyright transfers from "unknowing" principal investigators who have a desire to publish in prestigious venues.
The complaint alleges that the publishers have "fixed the market" to make it difficult to publish without paying "prestige prices, luxury prices" through market concentration and copyright terms. The lawsuit aims to hold the publishers accountable for their practices and to create a more transparent and functioning market for open access publishing.
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