The Thesis Whisperer 22/02/2012
Academic publishing is presented as a universal good, without regard to how the publishing system operates. While publications are an essential addition to the CV in today’s competitive job market, the ethics of publishing need to be considered too. Some big publishers are making boatloads of money – in the order of millions of dollars – out of labour we academics willingly give them. This profit largely goes into the pockets of shareholders, not the researchers or universities. Essentially this is public money which becomes ‘privatized’. It works a bit like this.