Hacker News Reader

tl;dr: Science journals have lately be charging fees disproportionate to their perceived value.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/information-culture/2012...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racket_%28crime%29

It would be an interesting experiment to negotiate a single annual payment to all journals to make them publish all articles in an easily downloadable and extractable form.

I guess the publishers would not accept any payment less than their current (very large) profits, so you'd basically be locking in those profits and the system wouldn't get any cheaper.

I think they'd accept a smaller payment (and I'm guessing like you). if you could guarantee them a fixed profit, without the need to compete, advertise, print things, etc, that's just easier.

The idea would be to negotiate terms that are favorable (enabling more scientific research and public access to funded research).

Because this is free and will encourage others to do the same (again, for free)?