the.com/academic publishing
where knowledge goes to be peer-reviewed, paywalled, and sold back to the people who made it.
means the system of journals and publishers that vets, prints, and distributes scholarly research, usually for a fee researchers themselves don't get paid for.
from emerged from 17th-century scientific societies like the royal society sharing findings by letter; ballooned into a multibillion-dollar industry once postwar publishers realized universities had to buy back what their own faculty gave away for free.
profit marginselsevier reports margins rivaling apple and google
peer reviewscholars review papers unpaid, as a favor
sci-huba pirate site now hosts millions of paywalled papers
impact factorone number can make or break careers