I’ve written before (1, 2, 3, 4) about Open Access and the struggles associated with it. I used to think the debate was nuanced but the behavior of the publishers have convinced me that they’re getting what they deserve. I still feel a little queasy about taking the side of the pirates but, really, how can you feel sorry for the publishers? They exploit the researchers, they exploit the reviewers, they exploit the editors, and they exploit the tax payers. Meanwhile they’re making billions in profit on the backs of labor that they paid literally nothing for.
Vox has a nice article on The Open Access Wars. If you’re not familiar with the issues, the article does an excellent job of explaining them, how we got to where we are, and what’s apt to happen in the future. Ironically, as I’ve said before, the victims have brought this on themselves. Academics continue to insist on publishing in “high impact” journals—those run by the publishers exploiting them—because they’re more prestigious and, more importantly, because the tenure and promotion committees award researchers who publish in those journals. Until universities fix that problem, there’s probably little hope of solving the open access problem.
The universities have not yet been able to take that step but they are banding together and taking a hard line with the publishers. They’re insisting that at least their researchers’ papers be available to everyone for free. Vox speculates that the system will evolve to where the universities pay for the right to publish in a journal but the results will be free to all. That’s not perfect but it’s way better than what we have today.