Cross-posting here b/c it's smth I feel deeply passionate about. Why are publishing costs often in the THOUSANDS? Also, being institution-unaffiliated atm, why (if not for Sci-Hub etc.) do I need to pay €40 to read ONE article? #MathSky #AcademicSky @littmath.bsky.social @grahamkendall.bsky.social - ThreadSky

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totientquotient.bsky.social • 6 days ago

Cross-posting here b/c it's smth I feel deeply passionate about. Why are publishing costs often in the THOUSANDS? Also, being institution-unaffiliated atm, why (if not for Sci-Hub etc.) do I need to pay €40 to read ONE article?
#MathSky #AcademicSky @littmath.bsky.social @grahamkendall.bsky.social

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joshuagrochow.bsky.social•6 days ago

History, profit, and because they have been getting away with it.

I really like this piece about the history of how we got here and how off-the-charts profit margins are for big academic publishers: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/jun/27/profitable-business-scientific-publishing-bad-for-science

joshuagrochow.bsky.social•6 days ago

That said, I think publishing costs are only a small fraction of what grant $ goes to in math. Most is salaries, travel, and facilities. But yes, even if it's a small fraction, it may still be a large total $ amount, and we shouldn't use taxpayer money to pad the profits of extractive publishers.

joshuagrochow.bsky.social•6 days ago

And also the fact that so many top math journals are at for-profit publishers only makes math more exclusionary, to the benefit of the publisher's pockets. Thankfully, math is ahead of the curve compared to other research areas in moving to more equitable publishing models.

ncalgebra.bsky.social•6 days ago

Most top math journals do not have publishing fees. I've never paid to publish except one time when my university agreed to pay to make an article of mine open access. Publishers like Elsevier make way more money from the exorbitant fees they charge libraries.

ncalgebra.bsky.social•6 days ago

If you need the published version of a math article (as opposed to the arxiv), try reaching out to the author.

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