This remarkable article explains how it all came to be this way; https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/jun/27/profitable-business-scientific-publishing-bad-f

This remarkable article explains how it all came to be this way; https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/jun/27/profitable-business-scientific-publishing-bad-for-science https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/jun/27/profitable-b... (The good stuff starts where Robert Maxwell appears)