this post was submitted on 30 Nov 2025
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It’s an amazing business model, if you think about it: the research is paid for my the government, the researchers then send it to the publisher for free, unpaid academics are doing the review for free, and then all universities pay for subscription access (with money that largely also comes from the government).
Input is free, the work is done for free, and then the output is wildly expensive, but paid for by tax payers.
But if someone even mentions guillotines people get mad.
It took me a looooong time to understand the business model, as I just couldn't wrap my head around the fact that everyone pays and Elsevier just takes money without paying anything, without doing anything.
They literally just inserted themselves to collect money without doing anything
This company should be prohibited