Are academic publishers the most ruthless capitalists in the western world?

Submitted by Alexis on Tue, 2011-08-30 16:43

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General Discussion / Free-for-All

Well worth a read... Did you know the profit margins for the major academic publishers was near 40%? Do you think the publishers really add any value to the research done by scientists, reviewed by scientists and paid for by tax money?

Academic publishers make Murdoch look like a socialist

Academic publishers charge vast fees to access research paid for by us. Down with the knowledge monopoly racketeers

George Monbiot
guardian.co.uk, Monday 29 August 2011 21.08 BST

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/29/academic-publishers…

cbarber Wed, 2011-08-31 09:40

I think most academics would agree that we need to switch to a better system, the question is how do we go about doing it? At first glance it seems you need (gasp) more government funding to launch a non-for-profit journal system. Good luck getting funding!