5 ms·
The current shareholders and editors of the prestigious journals contribute nothing to it being prestigious. It is historical accident and network effects that
by MagnumOpus 5y ago
The current shareholders and editors of the prestigious journals contribute nothing to it being prestigious. It is historical accident and network effects that now let some journals charge $10k for $100 of work, which many rightly perceive as unjust profiteering.
Moving away from Elsevier and Springer Nature is a coordination problem just as difficult and just as desireable as moving everyone in your school off WhatsApp or iMessage or Facebook towards some less odious alternative...
- leemailll 5y agoIt's a bit naive to think the editors of these journal don't contribute.
- krull10 5y agoI actually think these fees are an easy problem to solve, but they can’t be solved by academics themselves due to the incentives (i.e. publishing in these journals plays a big role in promotions and possible future grants being awarded). If funding agencies capped grant publishing fees at say $250 per article, while still requiring open access, that would be the end of these insane page charges. The journals would have to adapt. No one is paying $11,000 out of pocket to publish in these journals…
- refurb 5y agoI’m not sure shareholders contribute anything to companies other than capital, so your point doesn’t make sense. The editors most certainly contribute to prestige. You don’t get big name editors unless you matter. And the prestige isn’t guaranteed. Several journals that were prestigious when I was a grad student no longer are. So I reiterate my point, the journals provide something of value, people just don’t like the price.