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'Too greedy': mass walkout at global science journal over 'unethical' fees
More than 40 leading scientists have resigned en masse from the editorial board of a top science journal in protest at what they describe as the "greed" of publishing giant Elsevier.
The entire academic board of the journal Neuroimage, including professors from Oxford University, King's College London and Cardiff University resigned after Elsevier refused to reduce publication charges.
Academics around the world have applauded what many hope is the start of a rebellion against the huge profit margins in academic publishing, which outstrip those made by Apple, Google and Amazon.
Neuroimage, the leading publication globally for brain-imaging research, is one of many journals that are now "open access" rather than sitting behind a subscription paywall. But its charges to authors reflect its prestige, and academics now pay over £2,700 for a research paper to be published. The former editors say this is "unethical" and bears no relation to the costs involved.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Mojibake Tengu on Wednesday May 10, @11:00AM (1 child)
Prestige scientific journals business model is now pure parasitism, actually helps nothing in science, only attends barrier to entry into certain privileged caste.
What was functionally important in 18.-19. centuries at then society tech level is now a useless burden, for everyone.
There are plenty of non-profit organizations out there for innumerable funny political motives and technical goals, why scientific journals can't be just like that?
Are scientists too lazy or stupid to organize themselves better?
The edge of 太玄 cannot be defined, for it is beyond every aspect of design
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Thursday May 11, @04:55PM
Too idealistic, I'd say.
In a perfect world, scientists wouldn't have to worry about politics. There's a general sense that science is so hard that scientists need to be relieved of extraneous concerns such as politics. There's also the notion that because so many political issues arise from ignorance, the bogus ones are so easily refuted that teaching how to deal with that is unnecessary and beneath higher education. Any educated person ought to be able to figure such things out on their own, no need for coursework on that.