Open source vs. closed source scientific literature. Open source still requires subscriptions from universities to publish (more like a reverse subscription in that you require your authors to gather under group coverage and pay to publish), or they require authors to pay large fees to submit papers individually. Closed source differs in that they also charge readers to read the papers once published. The argument goes that closed source journals are charging the public for largely publicly funded research; They are essentially running an economy of guarded knowledge with public funding.
Aaron Swartz is a Robin Hood with academic publishers in focus.
Read more at Academic publishers run a guarded knowledge economy | Ben Goldacre | Comment is free | The Guardian
