The root problem is that someone has to pay for the people who shepherd the article from submission to publication. The old model was to have universities and individual subscribers pay; the new model is to have authors (i.e., grants) and universities pay; no one is happy with either. If we want the appearance of free publications freely available, we could have governments pay the costs, but that would create its own problems, as publishers jump in to publish nonsense to get the subsidies from the government. Or we could have governments take over publishing, as they have so many other formerly private activities. The only thing that's certain is that someone will have to pay.
you mention scihub but don't appreciate that its very existence means open access for every paper -- even ones behind a firewall -- is now a reality for anyone who wants it. So that significantly changes the game, beyond just official channels for information.
Books and periodicals (even newspapers) are no longer easy to get or worth the money..Soooo in
really self-defeating way the prices go up to recover from lost readership and ultimately it's like the $10 cheeseburger.
The root problem is that someone has to pay for the people who shepherd the article from submission to publication. The old model was to have universities and individual subscribers pay; the new model is to have authors (i.e., grants) and universities pay; no one is happy with either. If we want the appearance of free publications freely available, we could have governments pay the costs, but that would create its own problems, as publishers jump in to publish nonsense to get the subsidies from the government. Or we could have governments take over publishing, as they have so many other formerly private activities. The only thing that's certain is that someone will have to pay.
it broke and there's no fixing it.
This is a great article about the perpetual "file drawer problem." Rampant groupthink and confirmation bias complicate the situation, too.
you mention scihub but don't appreciate that its very existence means open access for every paper -- even ones behind a firewall -- is now a reality for anyone who wants it. So that significantly changes the game, beyond just official channels for information.
Any thoughts on Arxiv or how latex puts copy editing into the hands of researcher too?
Truth.
The current model does not serve the needs of the authors, reviewers, or readers. There MUST be somthing better.