RECOMMENDED: Paywall: The Business of Scholarship (film)

Jason Schmitt (Clarkson University) has released a new film, Paywall: The Business of Scholarship, that explores the academic publishing system:

Paywall: The Business of Scholarship is a documentary which focuses on the need for open access to research and science, questions the rationale behind the $25.2 billion a year that flows into for-profit academic publishers, examines the 35-40% profit margin associated with the top academic publisher Elsevier and looks at how that profit margin is often greater than some of the most profitable tech companies like Apple, Facebook and Google. 

Schmitt has released the film under a CC BY license and is available to stream and download for free. Screenings have also been scheduled for libraries, universities, and research centers across the world.

Author: Sarah Melton

Sarah Melton is Head of Digital Scholarship at Boston College. Her group explores and documents new tools and supports teaching and research in a variety of areas that utilize broad methodologies in the digital humanities. She is interested in questions of digital infrastructure, the philosophical underpinnings of ”openness,” and the intersection of public history and digital humanities. She has worked with Open Access Button for the past several years. Sarah holds a PhD from Emory University’s Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts.