Russian scientists lost their subscription to foreign scientific journals due to the fall of the ruble

    Due to the collapse of the ruble at the end of last year, the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR) was unable to renew its subscription to thousands of scientific publications from one of the largest scientific publishers Springer. On May 12, 2015, Springer closed access to scientific publications for Russian foundations and research institutes.

    In an interview with Kommersant, the situation was described in detail by the head of the Springer representative office in Russia and the CIS, Matthias Eicher. He explained that a subscription for 2014 was worth € 3.2 million. The payment scheme on the Russian side was complicated, including raising funds in Russian rubles and converting to euros at the last stage. Due to the sharp correction of the exchange rate at the end of 2014, the collected funds in rubles were no longer enough for the corresponding payment in euros. As a result, now the debt to Springer is about € 890 thousand, and no one is going to repay it.

    The operator of budget funds for settlements with Springer is the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR, which is managed by the Russian government). It is the RFBR that accepts applications from universities and research institutes for subscription, then each applicant is allocated budget funds in rubles.

    “We have been negotiating with the Russian Federal Property Fund for several months, renewing the subscription for free,” said Matthias Eicher. “But the position of the Russian Federal Property Fund is that they paid all the money that was supposed to be ... The Russian Federal Property Fund says that they cannot work in the current model because of currency risks. But they don’t offer a new model. ”

    “Springer set the price in euros. Now the product they sell has become twice as expensive, ”said Alexander Khlunov, member of the RFBR council, head of the Russian Science Foundation. - The budget has no money for this. We cannot afford much now, including such expenses. ”

    For reference: Companies like Springer appeared in the 1960s and 70s. They bought scientific journals from non-profit scientific organizations and turned them into a successful business, betting that it would be possible to significantly increase prices without losing subscribers who had nowhere to go. Today, only three publishers - Elsevier, Springer and Wiley publish about 42% of articles in the 19 billionth market of magazines covering science, technology and medicine. From 1984 to 2002, the prices of scientific journals rose by 600% .

    UPD 05/12/2015 16:18 “Providing scientists with access to modern scientific information is the most important condition for them to work efficiently, so access will certainly be restored. How to do this, we will decide. Let's see if a situation really arises that the RFBR does not have enough funds - we can take financing. This is an important event that we have noticed, ” said the head of the Ministry of Education and Science Dmitry Livanov.

    Only registered users can participate in the survey. Please come in.

    Do you think Springer’s debt should be repaid?

    • 76.4% Yes 673
    • 23.5% No 207

    Also popular now: