How Academics Are Pushing Back on the Academic Publishing *Mafia.
Cartel?
Just don't call it a business, that makes it seem way less shady than it is.
this post was submitted on 20 Jun 2025
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I think Cartel and Mafia both have their merits when talking about the for-profit publishing industry.
I would call them “leeches”. I see them like landlords. Charging you money for something basically no labour has to be done to support.
It’s reentierism.
School and college bookz has been a scam for decades
In schools corruption is done via government contracting
In college, professors put their name on the book and then force everyone buy it.
Parasites all around us.
Professors literally get like $0.03 per copy of a book sold. Your professors make you buy their book because no one else teaches the class like they can. It's their expertise that you're paying for when you go to college to study under them. They're making sure that you have something related to that that lasts.