EXCERPT

[Nobel laureate Randy] Schekman said pressure to publish in "luxury" journals encouraged researchers to cut corners and pursue trendy fields of science instead of doing more important work. The problem was exacerbated, he said, by editors who were not active scientists but professionals who favoured studies that were likely to make a splash.

The prestige of appearing in the major journals has led the Chinese Academy of Sciences to pay successful authors the equivalent of $30,000 (GBP 18,000). Some researchers made half of their income through such "bribes", Schekman said in an interview.

SOURCE

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/dec/09/nobel-winner-boycott-science-journals

Schekman's article: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/09/how-journals-nature-science-cell-damage-science