Yes, this was a huge disappointment when I read Chemistry & Physics years ago. The naive view of papers was that they were to move human knowledge forward, but

Yes, this was a huge disappointment when I read Chemistry & Physics years ago. The naive view of papers was that they were to move human knowledge forward, but it became clear they were an elaborate knowledge withholding device! Fortunately the trend seems to be towards better levels of openness, but it varies by subject. Stories like the BASF team being unable to reproduce vast numbers of established published techniques are way too common.