Publishing in high impact journals is vital for a scientific career. Only the very top has enough individual reputation that they can ignore Elsevier & co. And

Publishing in high impact journals is vital for a scientific career. Only the very top has enough individual reputation that they can ignore Elsevier & co. And they still like their articles published in Science, Nature, or whatever the most prestigious journal is in their field. Some top dogs are already boycotting Elsevier and the situation is very slowly changing, but the publishers hold a lot of leverage because of self-imposed academic incentives.