I agree that they provide some service. That service costs at best $500. I just don't see how they can even ask for $5000 for proofreading articles. I don't val

I agree that they provide some service. That service costs at best $500. I just don't see how they can even ask for $5000 for proofreading articles. I don't value the rest of their pre-publication work at all: It is all done by volunteers, and my experience with their (paid) editors is not good: they do just as much a lousy job on getting reviewers to respond in time as any other journal. They change their minds and are very, very swayed by politics. And , tbh, i don't care about the proofreading. Some journals have extremely detailed authoring guidelines that are useless: Typesetting a subscript in italics doesn't provide value to science, and most typos will be found out by anyone who reads your article. The assumption that a paper must be "print ready" is stupid in the 2010s. Anyone can spot your typos and you can correct them on the spot. Proofreading can in no way be a justification for publishing with elsevier or NPG. I found e-life's editorial process much, much more professional and it's open access too. They value the time of scientists and will reject your paper fast. In fact many other journals are experimenting with new formats. Hopefully the new established science reporting format will be something better. The key is to get reviewers to stop reviewing articles for them. It's this that keeps them relevant. Whether the end publication is on wordpress or on medium doesn't matter much. Also, https://www.nature.com/news/open-access-the-true-cost-of-science-publishing-1.12676 https://www.nature.com/news/open-access-the-true-cost-of-sci...