This fight really reminds me of conversation I had with my CEO. Me: If we stop bitching and start the project to do X, in a couple of years we would be able to

This fight really reminds me of conversation I had with my CEO. Me: If we stop bitching and start the project to do X, in a couple of years we would be able to do X and the reason for bitching would become irrelevant Him: You think it would take two years for them to fix it? Me: I don't know, but I know that it would take us a year to do it ourselves without impacting the rest so in two years we should definitely solve this problem. Him: Two years is a lot. We have other things that we would be doing <two years later> Him: It is so annoying this is still happening Me: Remember how I said we should do it two years ago? Let's start it now. In two years we... Him: You really think it will take two years to do it? <repeat> The reality is that Elsevier/T&F/Springer etc are providing service that no one bitching about them wants to do. Journals are just a collection of papers, elected by EIC, produced and owned ( in case the copyright is transferred to the owners of the journal produced for free ) or just produced ( for a fee, in case copyright is not transferred ) and formatted and printed and hosted. EIC gets an honorarium, gets invited to the conferences, events, gets his or her name on a cred sheet, gets to be on panels, etc. for doing pretty much nothing. If the journal is not owned by Elsevier/T&F/Springer/etc the EIC has to a lot more -- especially for journals that have nearly no circulation that still publish 4-6 times a year. UC and other organizations have more than enough resources to do it themselves. Sometimes they do. Those are called society journals. After a few years of running them societies typically sell them off ( sometimes for $1.00 ) to the likes of Elsevier/T&F/Springer etc. They do it because production is not sexy.