Blake

And they recently went for profit. It's listed on a stock exchange somewhere. And what they do is they own hundreds, thousands of these journals, including Nature, as the name suggests. And the main way you get access to these, you can't just freely read them, which is a problem in its own right, because we'd probably have better science. It's all paywalled. Yeah, it's all paywalled.

And they recently went for profit. It's listed on a stock exchange somewhere. And what they do is they own hundreds, thousands of these journals, including Nature, as the name suggests. And the main way you get access to these, you can't just freely read them, which is a problem in its own right, because we'd probably have better science. It's all paywalled. Yeah, it's all paywalled.

And they're huge paywalls. And if you think tuition goes up a lot, the... The expense to have access to these journals goes up even faster. I haven't looked at it recently, but I've occasionally seen numbers like they'll hike it 30% in a year, the cost to get these journals.

And they're huge paywalls. And if you think tuition goes up a lot, the... The expense to have access to these journals goes up even faster. I haven't looked at it recently, but I've occasionally seen numbers like they'll hike it 30% in a year, the cost to get these journals.

So people might know this if they've been in a university recently. Like, oh, if you – I remember this actually at Dartmouth. Since I was at Dartmouth, I could basically just read any article at any journal. That's actually pretty helpful. And that's very helpful if you're trying to be an academic in anything. But normal people don't have this access. Schools pay for this.

So people might know this if they've been in a university recently. Like, oh, if you – I remember this actually at Dartmouth. Since I was at Dartmouth, I could basically just read any article at any journal. That's actually pretty helpful. And that's very helpful if you're trying to be an academic in anything. But normal people don't have this access. Schools pay for this.

And the way they pay for it is they pay millions of dollars for these things. I have Springer Nature's price list for 2025. This is individual journals. They're electronic only price. Don't need to get it in paper. Let's see. Three biotech. $1,171 to subscribe a year. Abdominal radiology, $4,926 to subscribe per year. Acoustical physics, $6,161.

And the way they pay for it is they pay millions of dollars for these things. I have Springer Nature's price list for 2025. This is individual journals. They're electronic only price. Don't need to get it in paper. Let's see. Three biotech. $1,171 to subscribe a year. Abdominal radiology, $4,926 to subscribe per year. Acoustical physics, $6,161.

And what they get you with also is they'll get you to sign up for packages of 100, 200, 500 journals, and you have to pay for all of them. And it's tens of thousands of dollars a year. And if you multiply that over a bunch of universities, thousands of universities in the U.S., they're all effectively taxpayer-funded. What a business to be in. Through our grants. And the U.S.

And what they get you with also is they'll get you to sign up for packages of 100, 200, 500 journals, and you have to pay for all of them. And it's tens of thousands of dollars a year. And if you multiply that over a bunch of universities, thousands of universities in the U.S., they're all effectively taxpayer-funded. What a business to be in. Through our grants. And the U.S.

government itself pays for these, too, because our government agencies will, like the Department of Agriculture, for example, will subscribe to every agricultural journal. And they... My understanding is they don't do that much negotiation for what the price on this should be.

government itself pays for these, too, because our government agencies will, like the Department of Agriculture, for example, will subscribe to every agricultural journal. And they... My understanding is they don't do that much negotiation for what the price on this should be.

Yeah, so they also get it on the other end. So the justification for all of this is that these places at least... They do the peer review. They're the ones who are checking the research to make sure that it's not bogus. But infamously, peer review is an incredibly weak process. It's not nearly as strong as it should be. A lot of these journals don't pay scholars for doing peer review.

Yeah, so they also get it on the other end. So the justification for all of this is that these places at least... They do the peer review. They're the ones who are checking the research to make sure that it's not bogus. But infamously, peer review is an incredibly weak process. It's not nearly as strong as it should be. A lot of these journals don't pay scholars for doing peer review.

It's more like, oh, you pay your dues by doing the peer review on this. And And then you end up with these costs. It can cost you thousands of dollars to publish your own scientific paper. And there's even, last year, there was an antitrust suit brought against Springer Nature and some of the other big publishers, where allegedly they just do cartel-like behavior. It sounds like a syndicate. Yeah.

It's more like, oh, you pay your dues by doing the peer review on this. And And then you end up with these costs. It can cost you thousands of dollars to publish your own scientific paper. And there's even, last year, there was an antitrust suit brought against Springer Nature and some of the other big publishers, where allegedly they just do cartel-like behavior. It sounds like a syndicate. Yeah.

They make it so you can't submit your paper to multiple places, so they might compete over it. So if there's a really high-value paper, they could maybe bid, we want this published in our journal. But they prevent that through cartel-like behavior.

They make it so you can't submit your paper to multiple places, so they might compete over it. So if there's a really high-value paper, they could maybe bid, we want this published in our journal. But they prevent that through cartel-like behavior.

There are people who will do that.

There are people who will do that.