<story><title>Welcome to Hotel Elsevier: you can check-out any time you like – not</title><url>https://eiko-fried.com/welcome-to-hotel-elsevier-you-can-check-out-any-time-you-like-not/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>SamBam</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s amazing to me that the big research universities haven&amp;#x27;t banded together to make a competing open-access system of journals.&lt;p&gt;It would require no more work on the side of the academics -- they are already doing all the work for Elsevier -- and the administrative costs of hiring editors would almost certainly be equal to the fees they currently send to Elsevier.&lt;p&gt;The fact that they haven&amp;#x27;t makes me think that, with the exception of independent universities such as MIT, Elsevier&amp;#x27;s lobbyists are able to lean on the political people at the top of most large universities.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>fxtentacle</author><text>I believe there is not that much pressure on universities because most PhD groups have private Dropboxes with SciHub copies of Elsevier articles anyway.&lt;p&gt;Also, there&amp;#x27;s always that one guy that everyone knows that you can just email obscure paper requests to and he&amp;#x27;ll send you a PDF almost immediately. And of course you never ask how that works. But it works.&lt;p&gt;As such, there&amp;#x27;s little to lose if a university cancels their official Elsevier subscriptions. Their student&amp;#x27;s won&amp;#x27;t mind. And I believe that is why universities haven&amp;#x27;t banded together.</text></comment>
<story><title>Welcome to Hotel Elsevier: you can check-out any time you like – not</title><url>https://eiko-fried.com/welcome-to-hotel-elsevier-you-can-check-out-any-time-you-like-not/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>SamBam</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s amazing to me that the big research universities haven&amp;#x27;t banded together to make a competing open-access system of journals.&lt;p&gt;It would require no more work on the side of the academics -- they are already doing all the work for Elsevier -- and the administrative costs of hiring editors would almost certainly be equal to the fees they currently send to Elsevier.&lt;p&gt;The fact that they haven&amp;#x27;t makes me think that, with the exception of independent universities such as MIT, Elsevier&amp;#x27;s lobbyists are able to lean on the political people at the top of most large universities.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>gowld</author><text>Impact Factor metrics gaming for tenure.&lt;p&gt;Elsevier journals are &amp;quot;prestigious&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;Open journals exist. Some academics still choose to publish in closed journals.</text></comment>