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Why? The authors write the papers for free, the peer review is done by other scientists for free. Why should this "netflix for science" get to reap the profits
by jules 5y ago
Why? The authors write the papers for free, the peer review is done by other scientists for free. Why should this "netflix for science" get to reap the profits by locking it behind a paywall? The reason why predatory publishers still exist is a coordination problem. The journals have prestige built up historically, and the scientists need to publish in prestigious journals for their career. It's a chicken and egg problem.
- qmmmur 5y agoAnd the papers are often funded by public money.
- GeckoEidechse 5y agoI'm glad initiatives like [Plan S](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_S https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_S) exist ^^
- tchalla 5y agoHow much does it cost for an author to publish in a Nature or Science journal under Plan S?
- rsfern 5y agoI don’t know specifically about for Plan S, but most open access fees are in the 3-5k range per article
- mynameismon 5y agoDesktop version: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_S https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_S
- dmos62 5y agoA related cause is to have publicly funded software be published open-source. Check out the FSFE Public Code campaign https://publiccode.eu/ https://publiccode.eu/.
- faeyanpiraat 5y agoI'm not sure about how fair the whole system is, but if we assume the papers should be free, then a service where the papers are available is still reasonable to have a small fee. Someone needs to rent and service the servers, update the software, bandwidth costs money, etc..
- MrManatee 5y agoThere's a lot of information, data, and software out there that is available to download for free. Yes there are hosting costs, but there are also people and organizations that are willing to pay them because they believe that it's worth it. I'm absolutely convinced that if copyrights weren't an issue, there would be enough governments, foundations, universities, corporations, and individuals willing to pay the costs of making scientific publications available to everyone. It wouldn't have to be a paid service.
- sellyme 5y ago> Someone needs to rent and service the servers, update the software, bandwidth costs money, etc.. Scientific papers use approximately zero bandwidth. As a point of reference, if I hosted such a website on my home internet connection I would be paying approximately 0.00013 cents per upload. Even users downloading millions of papers would cost me less than a coffee. Setting up and managing a proportionate payment system would cost more than just eating the bandwidth costs would.