There must be some context here that I'm not aware of. I'm not sure what you're getting at. The number of people publishing in academic journals has only been increasing over the last couple hundred years, and there is no need to belong to any kind of privileged elite. A few journals or scientific meetings associated with academic societies might require you to be a member, but this isn't a terribly onerous or restrictive limitation. I joined the Willi Hennig Society by filling out an online form & paying $10. Joining the American Botanical Society was a little more money ($50? I don't remember now), but certainly nothing prohibitive.

When it comes to availability of scientific journals--this can be something of a problem. Journals are often too expensive for it to be feasible for private citizens to reasonably get good representation of a field. However, that's not much different for those in academia than those outside it, really. I have access to scientific journals because I go to my university & access them electronically or through the paper collections, and any other resident of the state can do the same.

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