A finer point often missed on HN is how different publishing is across fields. In physics i have always been able post preprints to the web/arXiv and leave them up indefinitely. Their scientific content is identical to the journal formatted version and they show up in search often before the paid version. This is true even for the historically worst offenders (i.e. Elsevier)
Last I heard the situation in chemistry was still completely different. The ACS is also known for bullying cash strapped college libraries into exorbitant and unnecessary journal subscriptions.
Last I heard the situation in chemistry was still completely different. The ACS is also known for bullying cash strapped college libraries into exorbitant and unnecessary journal subscriptions.