On Publishing and the Sneetches: A Wake-up Call?* - ASCB
lkfitz's bookmarks 2016-12-12
Summary:
"Most of us pay publication charges from our grants, that is, from taxpayers’ money. And then the libraries, again funded indirectly through the taxpayers, pay again for access. In open-access models of our for-profit publishers, things are hardly any better. Elsevier’s Cell Reports charges $5,000 to publish an article. Thus, while foregoing the library subscription income, the shareholders’ profits are well preserved in the aggregate of their portfolio. But at least open access allows us to evaluate the price tag up front. Scientists can decide on a case-by-case basis whether any particular journal is worth that much money, and publishers cannot lock away our papers in their archives, holding them ransom and charging our community for access over and over again. Figure 2. The authors’ satirical view of the Elsevier logo: The tree has grown (AD 2016)."