We're Paying Well Over $2.5B A Year To Publish

When I said "don't review for free" ....

A few days ago, I mentioned the “don’t review for free” mantra as part of a look at an article describing a trial of paying for reviews.

This little study is part of the insight into “why”.

These are very rough estimates, and the methods are based on a bit of a precarious scaffolding of inferences and assumptions – but, if they’re on the right track, this is what the explosion in open access looks like from a publisher standpoint:

With article processing charges in the $2000 to $3000 range, it’s fairly obvious the “author pays” model has been identified as a ripe source for revenue. Notable in the list above – the basically predatory MDPI and Frontiers journals who have turned into high-output paper mills in the past decade.

It is well past time the authors and reviewers received fair compensation for their work, rather than simply padding the massive profit margins of publishing houses.