@ChrisMayLA6 I'm not sure I entirely get this.

Academics are free to publish whatever they like for free on their own web sites, and make it available to all for free, and many do.

If they choose to take advantage of the added value that they believe that publishers offer they must surely understand that publishers' employees have children to feed and mortgages to pay just like anybody else.

@TimWardCam

So, I think the Q. is where does that added value come from; academics provide the content, review the content, often acts in editorial roles.... the publisher sets the content & publishes its (nowadays mostly virtually).... the academic publishing industry rivals big pharma in profitability, and as I've mentioned before, university managers still see publication in these places (journals) as indicative of quality, dismissing web-publication as 'self-publication'.... 1/2

@TimWardCam

So the Q. is does the support for promotions in universities justify the level of profitability gained by the publishers.

Open source alternatives are available (as you suggest) but at them moment they remain largely under-valued by funders (who use publications as one metric of quality of applicants) and managers in universities.

the widespread criticism is this relation between value-added to the university sector, the costs to the universities & the profitability

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