![\"Worn](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thepublicationplan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Academic-publishing-rip-off.jpg?resize=512%2C384&ssl=1\")
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In a recent opinion piece<\/a> published in The Guardian newspaper, columnist George Monbiot shares his views on what he considers to be \u201cone of the biggest rip-offs of the modern era\u201d. He is referring to academic publishing, where research is often publicly funded.<\/p>\n Monbiot highlights that \u201ceveryone should be free to learn; knowledge should be disseminated as widely as possible\u201d. However, with the traditional publishing model many articles are locked behind a paywall. He describes how, following a cancer diagnosis, he utilised pirate site Sci-Hub, which allows free access to millions of such papers. However, the website remains highly controversial<\/a> and has been the focus of several law suits over its illicit use and dissemination of articles.<\/p>\n Monbiot describes some of the efforts being made to overturn the traditional publishing model, including Plan S<\/a>. The key principle of which mandates that, by 2020, all reports of research funded by a consortium<\/a> of national and European research councils and funding bodies must be published in open access journals or on open access platforms. Plan S has been met with concerns from publishers<\/a>, but Monbiot argues that it should be \u201cthe beginning of the end\u201d of the traditional publishing model.<\/p>\n Monbiot\u2019s opinions have been met with some criticism from publishing representatives, including STM<\/a>, a global trade association for academic and professional publishers. In a response letter<\/a> to the editor of the Guardian, STM CEO Michael Mabe stated that, \u201cmuch research worldwide is indeed paid for by governments on behalf of the public but funding that research is not the same as paying for publication.\u201d While he acknowledges that things could be better, he notes that this would require investment \u201cand that requires payment\u201d.<\/p>\n \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2013<\/p>\n Summary by\u00a0Alice Wareham PhD<\/a>\u00a0from\u00a0Aspire Scientific<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2013<\/p>\n With thanks to our sponsors, Aspire Scientific Ltd<\/a> and NetworkPharma Ltd<\/a><\/p>\n In a recent opinion piece the traditional scientific publishing model is reviewed alongside recent efforts to change it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5444,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Newspaper columnist calls scientific publishing a \u201crip-off\u201d #PubPlan #ISMPP #EMWA ","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[24853,31272877],"tags":[343162440,343162493,343162524],"class_list":["post-5442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-open-access","category-publication-planning","tag-academic-publishing","tag-plan-s","tag-sci-hub","post-has-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thepublicationplan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Academic-publishing-rip-off.jpg?fit=682%2C512&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5Yk5l-1pM","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepublicationplan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepublicationplan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepublicationplan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepublicationplan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepublicationplan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5442"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thepublicationplan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5445,"href":"https:\/\/thepublicationplan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5442\/revisions\/5445"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepublicationplan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepublicationplan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepublicationplan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepublicationplan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/div>\n
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