Of all the crazy parts of our crazy system, the craziest part is where taxpayers pay for the research, then pay private companies to publish it, and then pay again so scientists can read it. We may not agree on much, but we can all agree on this: it is time, finally and forever, to get rid of for-profit scientific publishers.
Those same academics aren’t the kinds of people that do well in a hostile environment. All it takes is some coordinated brow-beating and they will cave every time.