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2025-01-06 05:00:56

The Hidden Profit Machine Behind Academic Publishing: A Call for Reform

In the world of academic publishing, a startling economic paradox exists that challenges the very foundations of scientific dissemination. The "big five" commercial publishers—Elsevier, Wiley, Taylor & Francis, Springer Nature, and SAGE—have built billion-dollar empires with profit margins rivaling tech giants, all while relying on the unpaid labor of researchers and public funding. This system, which some critics liken to a racket, sees academics conducting research, writing articles, and managing peer review processes without compensation, only for publishers to sell these works back to the same institutions that produced them. This introductory paragraph sheds light on a pressing issue in scientific communication, raising questions about the sustainability and ethics of current academic publishing models and overall, the core of its business model.

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#AcademicPublishing #OpenAccess #ResearchEthics #ScientificCommunication #PublishingReform
@The Guardian

Academic journals are a lucrative scam – and we’re determined to change that

^{Arash Abizadeh (The Guardian)}