If the cost to students attending universities that have adequate subscriptions is small -- previously, commenters suggested this portion of their tuition amounted to only a small annual fee -- then what would be the reasons the publishers would not offer individual subscriptions at similar cost to the public?  As any serious student knows, the &quot;a la carte&quot; prices are absurd -- how successful have they been with this idea?<p>One silly idea deserves another:<p>Generally, journals manage their subscriptions through filtering on IP address ranges.<p>Imagine a customer-ISP agreement that had an option whereby a subscriber could &quot;opt in&quot; to academic journals for a few extra dollars per month.<p>These subscribers might then be assigned addresses in certain designated ranges by their ISP.