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.