Scientific journals Memes

The scientific publishing industry's business model is truly a masterpiece of capitalism. Scientists do the research (funded by taxpayers), write the papers (for free), review other papers (for free), and then publishers charge those same scientists $39.99 to read their colleagues' work. It's like building a house, giving it away, then paying rent to live in it. The "Change My Mind" format perfectly captures what no reasonable scientist actually wants to change their mind about. The only people disagreeing are publishing executives counting their money while contributing approximately zero to scientific progress. And yet we keep submitting to Nature like academic Stockholm syndrome victims. Maybe we deserve this.

The irony is exquisite. An article from 1992 warning about science becoming inaccessible is itself... inaccessible without payment. Nothing says "open knowledge for all" quite like a $199 paywall. Scientific progress, apparently available for the low price of your entire research budget. Next up: a paper on world hunger that can only be accessed by trading your lunch.

The scientific publishing world in one brutal cartoon! Researchers stuck in this bizarre cycle where they do ALL the work (writing, reviewing) while paying publishers at every turn. It's like paying someone to let you build their house, then paying them again to look at the house you built! The academic world's most expensive abusive relationship. Next time someone asks why scientists are always begging for grant money, just show them this masterpiece of academic reality!