Individuation through infrastructure: Get Full Text Research , data extraction and the academic publishing oligopoly
ISSN: 0022-0418
Article publication date: 28 July 2020
Issue publication date: 24 December 2020
Abstract
Purpose
This article explores the recent turn within academic publishing towards ‘seamless access’, an approach to content provision that ensures users do not have to continually authenticate in order to access journal content.
Design/methodology/approach
Through a critical exploration of Get Full Text Research, a service developed collaboratively by five of the world's largest academic publishers to provide such seamless access to academic research, the article shows how publishers are seeking to control the ways in which readers access publications in order to trace, control and ultimately monetise user interactions on their platforms.
Findings
Theorised as a process of individuation through infrastructure, the article reveals how publishers are attempting an ontological shift to position the individual, quantifiable researcher, rather than the published content, at the centre of the scholarly communication universe.
Originality/value
The implications of the shift towards individuation are revealed as part of a broader trend in scholarly communication infrastructure towards data extraction, mirroring a trend within digital capitalism more generally.
Keywords
Citation
Moore, S.A. (2021), "Individuation through infrastructure:
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited