Comment by yreg

6 hours ago

What I dont understand is why cant we get free open journals with high curation standards that would eventually get to the reputation level of Nature.

Hosting pdfs + paying out reviewers could be covered by donations.

Donations hasn’t been a successful path for the wider internet, no reason to expect any difference here. Ads embedded in the images, or perhaps listen to a message from our sponsor while we prepare your PDF?

  • Works pretty well for Wikimedia which has gotten incredibly rich while providing an essential service for the internet public. (Off the back of volunteers, of course.)

  • Donations likely won't work, but a combination of realistic publishing fees that do not enrich a publishing house plus government sponsorship (which would sort of happen implicitly when those fees are paid from grant money) likely would.