Paywall: The Business of Scholarship
About Paywall: The Business of Scholarship
Jason Schmitt's documentary follows the money in for-profit academic publishing and the open-access push against it. It puts the yearly flow to those publishers at $25.2 billion and Elsevier's margin at 35 to 40 percent. Scholars, librarians, and open-access organizers talk through how the bills get paid.
Cast & crew
More about Paywall: The Business of Scholarship
Jason Schmitt directed and produced it. Russell Stone photographed it. Jonathan Mann wrote the music. An Open Society Foundations grant paid for the production and the free online release. It premiered on 5 September 2018 at the Landmark E Street Cinema in Washington, D.C. It runs 65 minutes. It was then released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.
Themes
Reviews
Inside Higher Ed, Nature, and New Scientist all reviewed it.
Look
Russell Stone photographed the interviews.
Music
Jonathan Mann wrote the music.
Notes
- People on screen include Alexandra Elbakyan, Peter Suber, Heather Joseph, Paul Ginsparg, Brian Nosek, and Vitek Tracz.
- The premiere theater was the Landmark E Street Cinema.
- The license is CC BY 4.0.
Scenes
- The film lays out the $25.2 billion figure and the Elsevier margin.
- Open-access organizers answer the publishers.
Also available
- Internet Archive (PaywallTheBusinessOfScholarshipFinalMovieMastered)
- Wikimedia Commons (2018 documentary 'Paywall – The Business of Scholarship'.ogg)