Are We No Longer Serious?

There are signs that we are no longer serious about protecting the public sphere, seeking truth, or creating order out of chaos. From preprints to open peer-review to inadequate responses to grifters of all kinds (predatory publishers, exploitative publishers, and business models with inherent conflicts of interest), we are generally no longer plausible gatekeepers.

Two more signs have recently emerged, both involving Springer Nature, coincidentally.