This briefing paper aims to provide a historical perspective that can inform the debates about what the future of academic publishing should look like. We argue that current policy regarding open access publishing, and many of the other proposals for the reform of academic publishing, have been too focused on the opportunities and financial challenges of the most recent changes in digital communications technologies and have given undue weight to commercial concerns. In 2013, the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council funded a 4-year project on the editorial and commercial history of the world's oldest-surviving scholarly journal ('Publishing the Philosophical Transactions: a social, cultural and economic history of a learned journal, 1665-2015', AH/K001841). The project is led by Dr Aileen Fyfe at the University of St Andrews in partnership with the Royal Society. The project team convened a workshop at the Royal Society, 22 April 2016, on 'The Politics of Academic Publishing, 1950-2016'. This briefing paper is informed by the contributions of those who attended that day, and we thank them for their insights.

This briefing paper aims to provide a historical perspective that can inform the debates about what the future of academic publishing should look like. We argue that current policy regarding open access publishing, and many of the other proposals for the reform of academic publishing, have been too focused on the opportunities and financial challenges of the most recent changes in digital communications technologies and have given undue weight to commercial concerns. In 2013, the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council funded a 4-year project on the editorial and commercial history of the world's oldest-surviving scholarly journal ('Publishing the Philosophical Transactions: a social, cultural and economic history of a learned journal, 1665-2015', AH/K001841). The project is led by Dr Aileen Fyfe at the University of St Andrews in partnership with the Royal Society. The project team convened a workshop at the Royal Society, 22 April 2016, on 'The Politics of Academic Publishing, 1950-2016'. This briefing paper is informed by the contributions of those who attended that day, and we thank them for their insights.