Why do scientific papers have to be so expensive?

I usually see them at around $30 each. Thankfully they were free when I was a student using my school's Wifi. But now I'm back at home. I'm just glad I can get free Biotechniques newsletters to still see a few free papers. I understand that the research conducted for those papers is expensive, but I still feel like the price is a little too steep.

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Existentior · M

Would you like to spend two entire months meticulously working on a paper, from morning until evening, having it conform to the content norms, format, etc. only to have someone have a look at it for a lousy $30? That's just an outright insult to the author.

If you've written any serious paper for university (which I hope you have), you can understand the sheer blood, sweat and tears you have to go through to get that paper to be perfect, spelling-perfect as well as content-approved.
I hope you realize that that amount of labor equals up towards $4200, at $13 per hour.

You should also know that what you're having to pay is actually a gift and a blessing because for outsiders (non-alumni) the fee is $500, if not $2000 (!!) for certain subscriptions!

This over-pampered generation is really going too far.

hiddenkitty · 26-30, F

Okay, you raise a good point. I see how my question could be interpreted as childish, but now I will keep this in mind when I think about the price of scientific papers. I have in fact not yet written any scientific papers, so I can see how not having this perspective would lead to me not fully understanding the price of a scientific paper. Thank you for this insight. :)
Also, you mention that the fee is $500. I'm seeing fees for $30, some $50, and I'm seeing this on my computer at home, not through any student wifi or student log-in of any kind. And I was just speaking of the fee to view individual papers. I hadn't even looked into the fee for subscriptions, but that too is fascinating information that I will try to keep in mind as well. Again, thank you.

Existentior · M

@hiddenkitty: You're welcome. You're such a sweet kitty, aww.

SW-User

You can get your supervisor to grant you access to the academic websites you want to which these papers are free for your perusal since most professors have premium memberships with these science sites like PubMed, OARE, AGORA, etc.

hiddenkitty · 26-30, F

That's true, but I'm currently unemployed. I just wanna peruse a few papers every once in a while so I can feel scholarly.

Flenflyys · 31-35, F

hiddenkitty · 26-30, F

Okay. I'll consider that.

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