The academic publishing industry generates around $19 billion annually globally. However, around 50% of that revenue is distributed between only 5 major players. Similarly to the book publishing industry, which has its own big five, academic publishing is dominated by a few major companies.
This report will look into the profitability and scale of academic publishing across the world, as well as look at the ever-growing role of open-access publishing in the industry’s profits.
- The worldwide revenue from academic publishing stands at over $19 billion per year.
- Out of this figure, over 50% is attributed to 5 major publishing companies – Elsevier, John Wiley & Sons, Taylor & Francis, Springer Nature, and SAGE.
- The academic publishing industry has one of the biggest profit margins, sometimes amounting to 40%.
- Major players in academic publishing generate larger profit margins than some of the most successful tech companies, like Google and Amazon.
- Elsevier is the biggest academic publishing company in the world, generating over $3.35 in revenue. SAGE, Springer Nature, and John Wiley & Sons all generate over $1.5 billion annually.
Largest academic publishers in the world
- When it comes to the number of academic journals published, Elsevier published 2,928 journals in 2022, the most among all academic publishers.
- Springer (2,920) and Taylor and Francis (2,508) are the only remaining publishers with over 2,000 journals.
- Together with Wiley (1,607) and SAGE (1,151), these 5 publishers have over 11,141 journals under their wing as of 2022.
- This means that the Big5 in academic publishing accounts for at least 25% of all journals published worldwide.
| Publisher | Published journals |
| Elsevier | 2,928 |
| Springer | 2,920 |
| Taylor & Francis | 2,508 |
| Wiley | 1,607 |
| SAGE | 1,151 |
| Walter de Gruyter GmbH | 747 |
| Egypts Presidential Specialized Council for Education and Scientific Research | 743 |
| Oxford University Press | 485 |
| MDPI | 408 |
| CAIRN | 398 |
When it comes to open-access journals, the biggest publishers are still resisting this growing trend:
- 20.18% of Elsevier’s journals are open-access, and this is the biggest share of open journals among the top 5 publishers.
- Wiley has only 4.11% of journals with open access, and Taylor & Francis has around 9.97%.
- On the other hand, publishers like MDPI and Copernicus are fully engaged in open-access and all of their journals are widely available for free.
| Publisher | OA journals | Share of OA journals |
| Elsevier | 591 | 20.18% |
| Springer | 467 | 15.99% |
| MDPI | 408 | 100.00% |
| Walter de Gruyter | 396 | 53.01% |
| Taylor & Francis | 250 | 9.97% |
| Hindawi Limited | 229 | 84.81% |
| Scientific Research Publishing | 227 | 99.56% |
| FapUNIFESP (SciELO) | 207 | 91.59% |
| Frontiers Media SA | 178 | 98.89% |
| SAGE | 156 | 13.55% |
- In 2022, Elsevier published around 702,217 academic articles through its journals, the most among all academic publishers.
- No other publisher had over 450,000 articles published. Elsevier accounts for over 13% of all published academic articles per year.
- Only 6 publishers produced over 100,000 academic articles in 2022.
- 10 publishers account for almost 50% of all published articles during the year.
| Publisher | Articles published |
| Elsevier | 702,217 |
| Springer | 447,376 |
| MDPI | 301,235 |
| Wiley | 255,574 |
| Taylor & Francis | 147,276 |
| Frontiers Media SA | 126,116 |
| Oxford University Press | 87,427 |
| Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers | 78,859 |
| SAGE | 75,479 |
| Ovid Technologies | 73,276 |
- MDPI leads all academic publishers in the open-access category with 301,216, or 99.99% of its articles having open access.
- Elsevier published over 175,414 open-access articles, but they account for only 24.98% of the publisher’s total.
- 36.41% of Springer’s articles have open access.
- Frontiers Media is the only remaining academic publisher with over 100,000 open-access articles published over the last year.
| Publisher | OA articles published | Share of OA articles |
| MDPI AG | 301,216 | 99.99% |
| Elsevier BV | 175,414 | 24.98% |
| Springer Science and Business Media LLC | 162,886 | 36.41% |
| Frontiers Media SA | 126,116 | 100.00% |
| Wiley | 81,915 | 32.05% |
| Oxford University Press (OUP) | 48,617 | 55.61% |
| Hindawi Limited | 44,975 | 89.07% |
| Taylor & Francis Ltd | 39,307 | 26.69% |
| SAGE Publications | 25,865 | 34.27% |
| Public Library of Science (PLoS) | 20,628 | 100.00% |
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