Note that the people doing the research and the people doing the peer review are not the ones who pocket all the money made by these scientific journals.

The companies operating the journals make the profits.

This made more sense in the days when everything was still on paper.

One of the people who turned scientific journals into what they are today was Robert Maxwell. He is dead, but his legacy lives on.

You may have heard of his daughter Ghislaine who apparently takes after her father when it comes to ethics and morals.