On September 12, 2024, Lieff Cabraser and Justice Catalyst Law filed a federal antitrust lawsuit in New York on behalf of neuroscientist Lucina Uddin, challenging six major academic publishers—Elsevier, Springer Nature, Taylor & Francis, Sage, Wiley, and Wolters Kluwer. The suit, brought on behalf of scientists and scholars who provided manuscripts or peer review, claims these publishers conspired to divert billions of dollars meant for scientific research. The lawsuit alleges that the defendants force scholars to perform peer reviews (evaluating each other’s research) for free, limit competition by only allowing submissions to one journal at a time, and block researchers from sharing their findings during the often lengthy peer review process, which can take over a year.
As Inside Higher Ed reports, this case is part of a broader pushback against the power imbalance in the academic publishing world. For years, scholars have had little leverage, as career advancement depends heavily on publishing in prestigious, high-impact journals. The lawsuit contends that publishers exploit this dependency, diverting taxpayer-funded research dollars into private profits.
Lieff Cabraser partner Dean Harvey, who represents the plaintiffs, spoke to both Higher Ed Dive and Inside Higher Ed about the significance of this lawsuit. Harvey noted, “For-profit academic journals have exploited scholars and taxpayers by colluding. The academic publishing industry has acted as though the antitrust laws do not apply to them, and believe scholars do not deserve the same protections as everyone else. They are mistaken.”
Higher Ed Dive highlights the immense profits these publishers generate by controlling access to research. In 2023, the six publishers collectively earned over $10 billion from their peer-reviewed journals, with Elsevier alone bringing in $3.8 billion. The lawsuit claims this revenue is built on illegal agreements that suppress competition and delay the release of critical scientific findings.
This system, which relies on unpaid academic labor, also stifles scientific progress. As noted in Inside Higher Ed, scholars are trapped in a “publish or perish” cycle, where publishing in top-tier journals is essential for career advancement, yet those journals exploit them by keeping peer review unpaid. The lawsuit claims that this model has slowed advancements in fields like cancer research, quantum computing, and climate change.
The case seeks to dismantle these anticompetitive practices and foster a more equitable academic publishing system, where scholars are fairly compensated for their labor and research can advance without unnecessary delays. It also aims to encourage academics to explore alternative systems, potentially driving more competitive solutions to the longstanding issues in the academic publishing industry.
About Dean Harvey
A partner in Lieff Cabraser’s San Francisco office, Dean M. Harvey represents individuals and companies in antitrust, business tort, employment, and intellectual property litigation. His cases seek to remedy and prevent wrongful conduct by dominant firms. These precedent-setting lawsuits concern a wide variety of industries and markets. Remedies include reimbursing purchasers who have overpaid for price-fixed products; preventing monopolists from stifling innovation and eliminating competition; and obtaining damages for businesses, inventors, and copyright owners.
Mr. Harvey was a leader in the High-Tech Antitrust class action against Google, Apple, Intel and other tech giants for allegedly conspiring to suppress the mobility and compensation of their technical employees. This landmark case resulted in the largest recovery (by far) of any class action asserting antitrust claims in the employment context: $435 million. Mr. Harvey continues the fight to ensure that employees receive competitive compensation, currently representing a doctor in a class action alleging an unlawful no-hire agreement between the medical schools of Duke University and the University of North Carolina.
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