The Real Reason Nobody Reads Academics - Bloomberg View

"As a journalist who really does try to keep abreast of the incredible work done by academics, I [Ezra Klein] think both sides are targeting the wrong culprit. The real problem is that the primary system for disseminating academic research -- through professional journals and working papers -- doesn't work for anyone but academics, and it may not even work for them. Professional journals are wildly expensive to subscribe to and bizarrely difficult to keep up with. How expensive? Last year, Harvard University -- yes, the place with the $30 billion endowment -- concluded that “major periodical subscriptions, especially to electronic journals published by historically key providers, cannot be sustained: continuing these subscriptions on their current footing is financially untenable.” Journal subscriptions can often run into the tens of thousands of dollars...."