If ‘money makes the world go round,’ then the world of scientific publishing has proved to be no exception to the rule. When the first scientific journal, The Royal Society’s Philosophical Transactions, came rolling off the press in 1665, it was paid for with a subscription model. In time, journals like these yielded income for commercial publishers, especially as the number of scientists and research institutions grew. But it was never big business — at least by modern standards. The moderately small scientific community, competition between printing houses, and high costs of distribution and production, reigned in any possibility of…
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