Not to argue on behalf of publishers, but the papers aren't written for free. It's part of the job of being a researcher, it's a significant KPI for which you're hired and receive a wage.
Reviewing for free is pretty much bullshit though. As is paying to read them afterwards, if your research institution doesn't pay to publish in an open access journal
It's not the publishers paying the researcher's salaries, they're mostly paid by public institutions and receive funding from government grants. If anything, bl researcher pay structure should result in open access publication.
Yes, but this really does just mean we should have a government provided publisher for government funded research. I paid for this research every 4/15 and i shouldn’t have to pay again if I want to see it
Sure, that would work. Or government grants available so anyone who wants to be an editor can apply for funds to get it going. Papers are rarely printed on paper nowadays, so the main costs would be paying editors, paying reviewers, and web hosting.
I was hired to teach at a non-research college... except admin are trying to finnegal us into doing off-contract studies and publishing, moving forward. So yes, in the worst cases, it's done even off-wage.