<story><title>Science’s pirate queen</title><url>https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/8/16985666/alexandra-elbakyan-sci-hub-open-access-science-papers-lawsuit</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>hugofirth</author><text>Frankly, scientific publishers represent institutionalised theft of tax payer money:&lt;p&gt;- Academics (most often publicly funded via grants and university salaries) do the work for free.&lt;p&gt;- They are expected to learn to use LaTeX and to typeset their work for free.&lt;p&gt;- They are expected to copy-edit the papers for free, or else pay a copy editor themselves with, you guessed it, public funds.&lt;p&gt;- Volunteer Academics (on university time and therefore, again, public money) are expected to review the work for technical accuracy and novelty. If done well this is &lt;i&gt;extremely&lt;/i&gt; time consuming.&lt;p&gt;- Finally, the Journals have the temerity to charge the same universities who produce their product &lt;i&gt;millions&lt;/i&gt; of pounds a year in journal subscriptions and Open Access fees.&lt;p&gt;- Finally finally, none of the Authors are &lt;i&gt;ever&lt;/i&gt; paid for their work. Not that it matters, because again: public funding should mean public access.&lt;p&gt;The most frustrating part is that Academics themselves are locked into this system by the career prospects conferred by prestigious journals&amp;#x2F;conferences.&lt;p&gt;I’m not normally one for beating the “nationalise them” drum, but if there has ever been a case for businesses to be dismantled and put in public hands it’s these parasites.&lt;p&gt;Sincerely, a Scientist :-)</text></comment>
<story><title>Science’s pirate queen</title><url>https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/8/16985666/alexandra-elbakyan-sci-hub-open-access-science-papers-lawsuit</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>_emacsomancer_</author><text>There&amp;#x27;s a reference to one of the &amp;#x27;value-add&amp;#x27;s of commercial journals being copy-editing:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; &amp;quot;For example, most of PLoS ONE’s editors are working scientists, and the journal does not perform functions such as copy-editing.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;But, in fact, in my personal experience, the for-profit journals don&amp;#x27;t really do copy-editing anyway, but in fact &lt;i&gt;introduce&lt;/i&gt; new errors into the paper which then the author has to pain-stakingly track down (or not).</text></comment>