• WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      There are literally tens of thousands of people in academia who could build a transparent, open-source, non-profit publishing system of their own.

      Why don’t they?

        • xspurnx@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          4 months ago

          It’s happening in Germany as well. Universities are banding together to negotiate better deals with publishers - some subscriptions haven’t been renewed when the publishers weren’t forthcoming. It’s not a solution (that would be the wide establishment of independent, self organized/hosted Open Access journals - using Open Journal Systems for example) but it’s a start.

          https://deal-konsortium.de/en/

        • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Well I don’t know about “highest” level.

          It’s in some ways worse than that. it’s institutional corruption and collusion across all levels of power within institutions. Not having access to pear review, journals, the gravitas, the funding sources:it creates a monopoly of power for all players in the system where they aren’t benefited by opening up access

      • howrar@lemmy.ca
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        4 months ago

        I don’t know about other fields, but we did do this for AI. It’s all community-run, papers are freely available for everyone to read, and the cost of submission in a peer-reviewed venue is to review other papers. The publishers don’t actually provide anything of value except name recognition and being “reputable”, which they maintain through momentum.

            • xspurnx@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              4 months ago

              Sorry, I might have misunderstood - I thought there would be some journals employing that “review to submit” system you mentioned.

              • howrar@lemmy.ca
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                4 months ago

                Ah, yes. I just wasn’t clear on whether you wanted to know more about the publication venues or about the value of publishers or something else.

                In AI, we normally publish in conferences rather than journals. Some of the big ones are

                There is a new journal I know of (TMLR) that’s becoming a bit more popular in these circles, but I believe they rely solely on volunteers to review rather than asking those who submit papers.

      • adenoid@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        The big issue is that the individuals who lead these institutions are those who are successful with the status quo; perhaps some recognize the importance of changing it but I perceive that most would be unwilling to dismantle a system that worked well for them.

  • Aurenkin@sh.itjust.works
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    4 months ago

    Remember folks, if you pirate scientific papers you’re stealing from the hard working…wait a minute…

  • howrar@lemmy.ca
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    4 months ago

    Academic Authors: $0

    FAKE NEWS

    This should be in the negatives. We have to pay to get papers published in these traditional journals.

      • xspurnx@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        4 months ago

        Don’t forget the university libraries. Yup, researchers are paid by the university, those researchers pay the publishers to place their articles, the peer reviewers are also paid by the university. And then the university has to shell out money to the publishers, so the articles can be accessed.

        • Zacryon@feddit.org
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          4 months ago

          researchers are paid by the university

          Not necessarily. A lot are paid by external research grants.

          • xspurnx@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            4 months ago

            I must admit what I wrote was simplified.

            If you take into account that a lot of research grants are financed by tax money though…

  • darki@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    and don’t use Sci-hub people. I am warning ⚠️ you so you can avoid it 🫡

  • Snapz@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    New textbooks have disappearing ink that only lasts, about one semester, until a month before finals, and then in that month they trigger dynamic pricing increases due to a stronger than typical demand…

  • eldain@feddit.nl
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    4 months ago

    I too want to open a business where both customers and suppliers pay me. Do you know any more gullible sectors? Academics are pretty extorted already it seems.

  • TheChemist [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    4 months ago

    I heard that, you are legally allowed to Email the Academic Authors, and request said articles, which they are allowed to provide for free.

    • cassowary@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      Absolutely. Plus scientists love when people want to actually read their work so you make their day too!

  • Bacano@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    As much as I’m against parasitic practices, I wonder how the inevitable corruption of money would (further) skew research if academia was well paid for their papers.

    • thevoidzero@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      We’re not saying pay the authors a bunch, we’re saying make the papers free to read. Or at least don’t charge authors and readers both, while keeping all the money for yourself.

    • Benaaasaaas@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      And I wonder how, not having the pressure to “succeed” research (to gain further grants), would increase the quality of said research.

      • Gustephan@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        I quit a physics phd path just under a decade ago because my experimental results were turning up negative and the uni I was at pushed me to doctor my results so we would keep getting funded. I also wonder about this

  • shastaxc@lemm.ee
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    4 months ago

    Why are we looking at revenue? We don’t know the operating costs. What are the profit margins?

    • TheLowestStone@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      According to Wikipedia, in 2022 Elsevier’s revenue was 2.909 billion pounds and their net income was 2.021 billion pounds.

      Not going to bother looking up the rest.

      • tetris11
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        4 months ago

        None, but science isn’t a business. Treating it so creates perverse incentives where an articles is reviewed by merit of its financial gain and not its content. Some people already do this by prestige alone, but adding money to the mix won’t improve this imo

          • tetris11
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            4 months ago

            No, but ideally all publishers should operate not-for-profit, and yep submission for open access should not cost ridiculous fees.