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UCLA Professor Files Antitrust Lawsuit Against Elsevier, Wiley, and Other Major Publishers on September 12

Sep 14, 2024, 01:20 PM

A UCLA professor has filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against six major academic journal publishers, including Elsevier, John Wiley & Sons, Sage Publications, Springer Nature, Taylor & Francis, and Wolters Kluwer. The lawsuit, filed by law firm Lieff Cabraser in the federal district court in New York on September 12, alleges that these publishers violated antitrust laws by barring simultaneous submissions to multiple journals and coercing peer reviewers to work without pay. The suit claims that these practices unlawfully appropriate billions of dollars that could have funded scientific research. The legal action highlights a three-part scheme involving unpaid peer review, non-competitive submission policies, and the appropriation of authors' work. The publishers are described as 'rent-seeking rackets' by critics.