Gutenberg 2.0 − Academic publishing in the digital world

This article investigates recent developments in academic publishing following the invention of the World Wide Web by Tim Berners-Lee and compares them to the development resulting from the invention of letterpress printing by Johannes Gutenberg in the 15th century. It is argued that both inventions are comparable in importance, as they fundamentally change the technological and economic conditions under which academic knowledge is produced and disseminated. For both inventions, the article discusses technical, economic, and institutional preconditions leading to the invention, the technological and economic significance of the invention, and the developments following from it. While it is evident for Gutenberg’s invention that its consequences reached far beyond academic publishing, the implications of Berners-Lee’s invention are still unfolding. The paper discusses recent developments in academic publishing, like the changed business model of many large publishing companies, the open access movement, the reproducibility crisis discussion, and the development toward open science, and relates them to Berners-Lee’s invention. It concludes that the economic changes in terms of dramatically lower marginal cost of production, non-rivalry of consumption, and non-excludability of consumers have pushed these developments and will continue to transform academic publishing.