The journal and research information division of RELX (Elsevier as was) reports 2017 revenues of £2.47bn (A$4.37bn), up 7 per cent on 2016. Adjusted operating profit was also up 7 per cent to £.913bn ($A1.616bn). Underlying growth was 3 per cent.  This is enough to give conniptions to open access advocates, who cannot see why the public pay for research while publishers privatise the profit of communicating science. But while RELX will never agree its publishing model is based on reports of research it did not pay for it appears the company is less interested in journals than in data.

“Electronic revenues saw continued good growth, partially offset by further print declines. In primary research we continued to enhance customer value by providing broader content sets across our research offering, increasing the sophistication of our analytics, and evolving our technology platforms. Databases & tools continued to drive growth across market segments through the launch of enhanced functionality and content development.”