@diamat this is only surprising if you approach #academia and #science with a positive bias instead of objectivity.

I have not seen an actually convincing quality control or publishing standard.

It’s all undocumented, learned behavior that gets approved or denied through unelected councils.

At least it’s not e.g. students or readers of papers who do the voting.

Not saying there aren’t good people doing good things. But the thing as a whole is incredibly and obviously shady.