this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2024
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Science Memes

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submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 64 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (4 children)

There are literally tens of thousands of people in academia who could build a transparent, open-source, non-profit publishing system of their own.

Why don't they?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

The big issue is that the individuals who lead these institutions are those who are successful with the status quo; perhaps some recognize the importance of changing it but I perceive that most would be unwilling to dismantle a system that worked well for them.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I don't know about other fields, but we did do this for AI. It's all community-run, papers are freely available for everyone to read, and the cost of submission in a peer-reviewed venue is to review other papers. The publishers don't actually provide anything of value except name recognition and being "reputable", which they maintain through momentum.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Oh, could you share some links?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Links to what?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Sorry, I might have misunderstood - I thought there would be some journals employing that "review to submit" system you mentioned.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Ah, yes. I just wasn't clear on whether you wanted to know more about the publication venues or about the value of publishers or something else.

In AI, we normally publish in conferences rather than journals. Some of the big ones are

There is a new journal I know of (TMLR) that's becoming a bit more popular in these circles, but I believe they rely solely on volunteers to review rather than asking those who submit papers.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Thanks, I will be looking into this!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

If you're still interested in this, CVPR recently made the rule explicit for the upcoming conference.

If they do not serve in another capacity for the organization of CVPR 2025, all authors are obliged to act as reviewers

https://cvpr.thecvf.com/Conferences/2025/CVPRChanges

[–] [email protected] 86 points 2 months ago (1 children)

There is a transitioning happening but progress churns slowly. I like to compare it to getting out of an abusive relationship.

https://sparcopen.org/our-work/big-deal-knowledge-base/unbundling-profiles/mit-libraries/

https://tagteam.harvard.edu/hubs/oatp/items

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago

It's happening in Germany as well. Universities are banding together to negotiate better deals with publishers - some subscriptions haven't been renewed when the publishers weren't forthcoming. It's not a solution (that would be the wide establishment of independent, self organized/hosted Open Access journals - using Open Journal Systems for example) but it's a start.

https://deal-konsortium.de/en/

[–] [email protected] 26 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Corruption - at the highest level.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago

Well I don't know about "highest" level.

It's in some ways worse than that. it's institutional corruption and collusion across all levels of power within institutions. Not having access to pear review, journals, the gravitas, the funding sources:it creates a monopoly of power for all players in the system where they aren't benefited by opening up access