On the rent-seeking behavior of the academic publishing industrywww.abc.net.au/religion/nicholas-agar-big-academic-publishing-rent-seeking-behaviour/104066062
526 sats \ 5 comments \ @south_korea_ln 6 Jul science
As universities find themselves under increasing budgetary pressure, companies that publish academic research reap impressive and increasing profits — a fitting way of characterising these publishers is as rent-seekers.
According to Peteers, the role of Springer Nature “is to create global visibility for research, opening doors to discovery”. Inspection of the company’s 2022 Annual Progress Report reveals the many valuable things it does to achieve that end. In a Nature-less world, how much would it cost to replicate these for Nature*? The US$2.1 billion that the company reported as revenue in 2022 suggests that Nature* could do what Nature does more cheaply.
Hard to fight these companies as scientists. I'll always choose to publish in Nature or Science at the end of the day, rather than in a cheaper open access journal, even if it means supporting this rent seeking system.
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148 sats \ 2 replies \ @jakoyoh629 6 Jul
I find this system a bit odd too. I understand that this kind of business has to be profitable, but it doesn't need to be this profitable. We don't need to sell out scientific publishing.
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98 sats \ 1 reply \ @south_korea_ln OP 6 Jul
Yeah lots of public money gets wasted on this kind of companies. Similar trend with conferences being organized by for profit private companies.
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17 sats \ 0 replies \ @Undisciplined 6 Jul
There are so many creative ways to spend other people's money.
One of the problems is that almost no one reads academic journals, so the main beneficiaries of publishing are the authors who do it for promotion and tenure, rather than the readership. Since that's where the demand is, that's who gets charged.
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38 sats \ 0 replies \ @Satosora 6 Jul
I remember reading nature when I was younger. I always felt that they have higher quality papers and research. I didnt realize that it cost so much to actually buy. My father just always had it on order. I remember after a few months we always donated it to the local library, so they would have the copy.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Bell_curve 7 Jul
2 publishers can influence scientific research and development?
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