4 ms·

It doesn't surprise me it happens within the Elsevier ecosystem. Elsevier has a long tradition of scientific misconduct and scientifically immoral behavior (see

It doesn't surprise me it happens within the Elsevier ecosystem. Elsevier has a long tradition of scientific misconduct and scientifically immoral behavior (see Wikipedia). The operating margin of Elsevier is around 40% which is huge! At the end mostly paid by tax-payer money. Personally, I never review or publish with Elsevier.

jcattle 7mo ago
One of the reasons why in Germany universities were able to collectively negotiate better open publishing deals with Wiley and Springer, but Elsevier just flat out refused to agree to any better terms for three years. (See Project DEAL: https://deal-konsortium.de/en/agreements/elsevier https://deal-konsortium.de/en/agreements/elsevier)
- pseudohadamard 7mo ago
  Happened in other countries as well, see e.g. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/elsevier-boycott-looms-down-under https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/elsevier-boycott-l...
seanhunter 7mo ago
You are in very very good company. The British mathematician Timothy Gowers famously boycotts Elsevier also https://gowers.wordpress.com/2012/01/21/elsevier-my-part-in-its-downfall/ https://gowers.wordpress.com/2012/01/21/elsevier-my-part-in-...
- pseudohadamard 7mo ago
  Huge numbers of academics have signed up to the Elsevier boycott, see http://thecostofknowledge.com/ http://thecostofknowledge.com/
apwheele 7mo ago
I am skeptical it is a problem isolated to Elsevier. Given the LLM craze now prioritizes open access, https://andrewpwheeler.com/2025/08/28/deep-research-and-open-access/ https://andrewpwheeler.com/2025/08/28/deep-research-and-open..., it would not surprise me people start gaming MDPI in the same way for example.
- xhkkffbf 7mo ago
  Exactly. Elsevier is a dominant company. Of course it's going to have a huge share of anything that goes into journals. They probably also have a huge share of the Nobel prize winning papers too. That being said, I'm happy to encourage open access.
- azan_ 7mo ago
  MDPI is gamed by design, I think that while Elsevier is awful, MDPI is even worse with 100s of special issues where you are guaranteed to land publication in journals with quite nice IF (which is inflated by publishing large proportion of reviews and less original research).
  - Wobbles42 7mo ago
    I wonder if the term "published" as a binary distinction applied to a piece of writing is a term and concept that is reaching the end of its useful life. "Peer reviewed" as a binary concept might be as well, given that incentives have aligned to greatly reduce its filtering power. They might both be examples of metrics that became useless as a result of incentives getting attached to them.
    - fc417fc802 7mo ago
      Both metrics are supposedly binary but in reality have always depended heavily on surrounding context. Archival journals have existed all along. Publication is useful as an immutable entry in the public record made via a third party. Blog posts have a tendency to disappear over time.
- EA-3167 7mo ago
  I'm certain that the comment you responded to never claimed that it was "isolated to Elsevier" in the first place, nor is it very compelling to speculate about how in the future something even worse might emerge. Right now Elsevier is by far the biggest offender and also happens to the be the topic of the conversation and the article.
roysting 7mo ago
I’m not sure why I’ve never really concerned myself with Elsevier, but that makes a lot of sense, knowing a rather vile and slimy con artist snake that works/ed for them.
johnbarron 7mo ago
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jcattle 7mo ago

One of the reasons why in Germany universities were able to collectively negotiate better open publishing deals with Wiley and Springer, but Elsevier just flat out refused to agree to any better terms for three years. (See Project DEAL: https://deal-konsortium.de/en/agreements/elsevier https://deal-konsortium.de/en/agreements/elsevier)

pseudohadamard 7mo ago
Happened in other countries as well, see e.g. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/elsevier-boycott-looms-down-under https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/elsevier-boycott-l...

seanhunter 7mo ago

You are in very very good company. The British mathematician Timothy Gowers famously boycotts Elsevier also https://gowers.wordpress.com/2012/01/21/elsevier-my-part-in-its-downfall/ https://gowers.wordpress.com/2012/01/21/elsevier-my-part-in-...

pseudohadamard 7mo ago
Huge numbers of academics have signed up to the Elsevier boycott, see http://thecostofknowledge.com/ http://thecostofknowledge.com/

apwheele 7mo ago

I am skeptical it is a problem isolated to Elsevier. Given the LLM craze now prioritizes open access, https://andrewpwheeler.com/2025/08/28/deep-research-and-open-access/ https://andrewpwheeler.com/2025/08/28/deep-research-and-open..., it would not surprise me people start gaming MDPI in the same way for example.

xhkkffbf 7mo ago
Exactly. Elsevier is a dominant company. Of course it's going to have a huge share of anything that goes into journals. They probably also have a huge share of the Nobel prize winning papers too. That being said, I'm happy to encourage open access.
azan_ 7mo ago
MDPI is gamed by design, I think that while Elsevier is awful, MDPI is even worse with 100s of special issues where you are guaranteed to land publication in journals with quite nice IF (which is inflated by publishing large proportion of reviews and less original research).
- Wobbles42 7mo ago
  I wonder if the term "published" as a binary distinction applied to a piece of writing is a term and concept that is reaching the end of its useful life. "Peer reviewed" as a binary concept might be as well, given that incentives have aligned to greatly reduce its filtering power. They might both be examples of metrics that became useless as a result of incentives getting attached to them.
  - fc417fc802 7mo ago
    Both metrics are supposedly binary but in reality have always depended heavily on surrounding context. Archival journals have existed all along. Publication is useful as an immutable entry in the public record made via a third party. Blog posts have a tendency to disappear over time.
EA-3167 7mo ago
I'm certain that the comment you responded to never claimed that it was "isolated to Elsevier" in the first place, nor is it very compelling to speculate about how in the future something even worse might emerge. Right now Elsevier is by far the biggest offender and also happens to the be the topic of the conversation and the article.

roysting 7mo ago

I’m not sure why I’ve never really concerned myself with Elsevier, but that makes a lot of sense, knowing a rather vile and slimy con artist snake that works/ed for them.

johnbarron 7mo ago

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