Academic Publishing

It’s not about the money…

[chrysshart]

"What do you get for it?" You get to keep being a doctor. Publish or perish and all that rot. You are so good at pointing out the flaws in our systems. Love it!

[Freyrin]

This is like when artists are published for "exposure." One of the bigger shams in the world is academic publishing and that needs to change.

[pauldegregorio]

A senior resident where I trained once told me that his proudest accomplishment academically is that he will be board eligible in a month and NEVER published anything. I was in awe.

[auxiliusm]

And most of the time you pay the journal to publish, when you want it to be open access. A really well thought out system, that makes total sense i must say. 👍

[lollsazz]

Don't forget that the reviewers of the papers also work for free, 'cause it's their duty as researchers. To review for the journal for free, 'cause it's not about the money.

[jameshenkel]

As a researcher, I nearly spit out my coffee at the end, the facial expression is exactly what you see in grad school once you realize your earning potential after 5-7 years of grad school, and then the prospects of 3 to 10 years in post-doc publishing for free before you start your own lab.

[LydJaGillers]

Dr. G about to start a revolution in academia via social media and I’m here for it. ✊🏽✊🏾✊🏼✊🏿✊🏻

[mropinionated]

I still will never understand how they get away with this

[winnieatshunny]

long live sci-hub. I have 100% no remorse in pirating any academic paper

[jesuswept]

The cracked voice at the end nearly killed me. 🤣

[shaunapapa]

I was told I couldn't continue in a nursing management job after a new group bought our hospital because my advanced degree is in Journalism not Nursing. I asked what they thought I would gain by going back to school after being a nurse for 20 years. They said I would learn advanced leadership, mind you, I had been doing this job quite successfully for 7 years. They also told me I would learn how to write and get published. I looked them straight in the eyes and said, that would be helpful because we had so little of that in JOURNALISM!!!

[vgarcia]

In ballet a lot of times we don’t get paid, we get “exposure”. “It’s a great opportunity! You’ll get lots of exposure!” I like to call it free labor

[firemermaid]

As a medical librarian who has to deal with how to pay for access, not even a physical copy, of these journals I feel this. Around me Elsevier has been known as Those Greedy Bastards for 2 decades.

[hosung]

In the humanities, there's an additional concern that "prestige" of a journal is mostly arbitrary because the subdisciplines are so diverse. New and exciting research is mostly published in newly made journals but they don't count much for that reason.

[AldO-HPB]

It may have been more justified in the past when journals actually had to “publish papers” on real physical papers and send them out globally. But when everything is online, “publication costs” (i.e. printing and shipping costs) are so much less. Imagine these days, exponential growth in journal articles; inversely proportional physical print publication costs due to digitalization. 🤨

[Rin-eftp]

The worst thing is the amounts they charge normal people to access papers make it inaccessible for most. Only companies and universities can afford to access it but they don’t even have to pay anyone for the work they are selling to others

[clairvaux]

The entire system is a scam 😂😭 This is why everyone should pirate the papers, to be honest. The actual writers get absolutely nothing even if you pay, and it all goes to the company who reap the benefits of the writers/researchers' hard work... Academia really does need a change. If it's really not about the money, why are they charging people to view the journal/articles while at the same time not giving a single dime to the people who actually did the research and wrote it? 😔 Both sides lose and only the publishing companies benefit.

[asrafelicia]

Another problem is, the lecturer have to publish their research in prestigious journal, so they can get a promotion or salary raise (at least in some country)

[audreysark]

As someone from a working class family who went into acadamia I've had so many of these conversations! Excellent point! 10+ yrs of debt and education & we are actually shamed if we mention $

[nikhiljain]

Aaron Shwartz tried to expose these publishing companies but look what happened.He was a legend