from Hacker News

Open-access publishing fees deter researchers in the global south

by elashri on 2/19/22, 5:35 AM with 34 comments

  • by setgree on 2/21/22, 7:06 PM

    The way that scientific publishing has evolved into a cartel-based business with insane barriers to entry has a lot of parallels to the healthcare industry in the US. The core problem with both is a disconnect between users and payers — in this case, readers vs. libraries.

    What makes the whole situation bearable, in my opinion, is sci-hub. Nature or whoever can charge whatever prices they wish, it makes no difference to my point of access. Even during times when I have legitimate access, it’s still often simpler to just find a paper on sci-hub.

    Thank goodness for pirates.

  • by ebiester on 2/21/22, 5:06 PM

    It will always be an uphill climb the further down on the hill you are. However, Academia doesn't need to keep making the hill taller.

    The hardest part is those at the top have the most advantages. For example, ivy league institutes now pay for substantial editing before it makes it to the peer review stage. This increases the quality of the work, but other scholars at institutes without the same level of funding are now competing against a higher bar, reducing their total output. (If you can save 200 hours of work per paper, you can put another paper out.)

    Money always imbalances the equation. This is yet another example. Unless institutions are willing to change the publication system, it will not get better, and it isn't in the interests in the institutions at the top to allow more competition.

  • by mangecoeur on 2/21/22, 6:36 PM

    The deep irony of this being published at nature.com, who charge over 10000usd in article fees.

  • by pfortuny on 2/21/22, 4:46 PM

    No wonder. It deters my colleagues in Spain (in my research area)… (Mathematics). I am sure those prices are way above anything imaginable in poorer countries.

  • by nefitty on 2/21/22, 9:41 PM

    Here's my tiny attempt at helping: https://observablehq.com/@iz/sci-hub

    It checks for working mirrors. I included an iphone shortcut I made that also checks mirrors. Run the shortcut through the share sheet while on a page of an article you need. Feel free to ask for help if that's unclear.

  • by qualudeheart on 2/21/22, 9:45 PM

    Yet another case of academia going to hell. Every institution is morphing into a centralized monolith designed to exploit the researchers.

    Is there a way to stop this? Some bright minds have been able to support themselves through fan donations or start businesses. Too bad that doesn’t scale.

  • by thayne on 2/21/22, 9:12 PM

    It's not like journals didn't charge publishing fees before. It always confused me why journals could get away with charging publishers to publish, then charge readers (or at least libraries and universities) for subscriptions.

  • by sgfgross on 2/21/22, 6:38 PM