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All of this has happened before. A group of scientists, upset with the extraordinarily profitable Elsevier, have announced its intention to boycott the publisher. In 2012, mathematicians led the Cost of Knowledge boycott. This time, it’s University of California (UC) scientists upset about the breakdown of negotiations that sought to combine journal subscriptions with open-access publishing. Unfortunately, on its own, this boycott will do little to change science publishing.
Many scientists struggle to see the value Elsevier provides. Elsevier usually demands a high price to publish a paper—on the order of $4,000–$5,000—and has also shown a willingness to play hardball in negotiations with whole countries. Importantly, Elsevier’s authors, reviewers, and most editors never receive any of this money.
Boycotting Elsevier is therefore a reasonable response from dissatisfied stakeholders. In theory, if boycotters provide their authoring, reviewing, and editing expertise for publishers with better copyright and access ...
