Another article that suggests publishers aren't simply benign purveyors of academic research, but rather have an interest and engagement in the outcome. Hence this academic paper, which was held back for months, published only after threats of mass resignation, and even then, only published with a large disclaimer stating "the accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information." The paper, drawing on an analogy with the music industry, points to excessively high profits taken by academic publishers, suggests that the ineffective Finch Report is mostly the result of industry lobbying, and recommends that academics take a lesson from the Grateful Dead and give their research away, an activity that would not only eliminate publisher profit but result in more, better and cheaper academic research. Here's the article (13 page PDF). Related: Metafilter thread.
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