Arash Abizadeh
If you've ever read an academic article, you were likely supporting a highly profitable system that takes advantage of researchers' unpaid labor and diverts public funds. The annual revenues of the "big five" commercial publishers – Elsevier, Wiley, Taylor & Francis, Springer Nature, and SAGE – each reach billions, with profit margins nearing 40%, even outstripping those of companies like Google. Academics, however, do most of the essential work for free: conducting research, writing articles, reviewing quality, and editing journals.
These publishers not only refrain from compensating us for our work but also sell access to the journals back to the universities and institutions that funded the research and editorial work. Universities require access to these journals for the latest research, yet the subscription costs have become so high that some universities struggle to afford them. As a result, many researchers, along with the general public, face barriers due to paywalls, preventing access to crucial information. If your university or library doesn’t subscribe to key journals, downloading a single paywalled article on subjects like philosophy or politics can cost between £30 and £40.
