The Unfairness of the Open Access Model

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Some of the biggest companies have profit margins between 20 and 40%. The public or charities are often paying for the science. So I think that it is a feeling that the model is fundamentally unfair. 90% of researchers say the process of publishing with Elsevier has improved the clarity of their research.

More than 40 leading scientists have resigned en masse from the editorial board of a top science journal in protest at what they describe as the ‘greed’ of the publisher. Ian Sample speaks to correspondent Hannah Devlin about the remarkably lucrative business of scientific publishing, hears from Prof Chris Chambers about what was behind the recent mass resignation, and finds out why researchers are demanding change. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod