A criticism of academic publications: business or dissemination of knowledge?
Koldo Saez de Bikuña Salinas, doctor in Environmental Engineering, analyzes the current system of scientific and academic publication.
It exposes the following situation:
“During my short career as a researcher, one of my main ethical dilemmas has always been related to the publication of my work. When it starts in this trade, discovering the business model of the scientific publishing houses falls to one like a jar of water cold: but how does this work like this and nobody does anything? At first I asked and I rang (I actually investigated, in parallel to my doctorate, by curiosity), in case there was something that escaped me, some relevant fact that was I would go unnoticed, something that could make sense to that. But no. It was that way. That’s it.”
In the article “Un negocio redondo” Koldo Saez de Bikuña Salina sets out the moral dilemma between publishing in private magazines and the will to spread the science and knowledge for its evolution. Especially considering that publications in private journals are usually the result of research carried out at public universities, with projects funded with public funds.