On the Access Principle in Science: A Law and Economics Analysis

This section provides a comprehensive analysis comparing both systems from a social welfare point of view and hence asking whether academic publishing should be organized by means of a universal closed or open access mode. The first subsection is an extensive view on both regimes and their impact in the light of the publishing game and hence the prevailing “publish or perish”—environment in scientific research. The impact on researcher’s private incentives to write high quality papers will be investigated as well as the social welfare effects when shifting towards an universal OA regime. Several robustness checks and a model extension to think outside the box of the model’s inherent contest character provide a broad picture on the superiority of either regime. The second subsection picks up on the distributive effects from shifting towards an “author pays” principle when introducing OA as the dominant publishing mode, briefly highlighting some possible distortions that may result in an obviously heterogeneous world. In this regard, especially the consequences for developing countries will be addressed, providing the analytical framework for investigating the international political economy of access to scientific knowledge in Sect. 4.2 of this chapter.