Stockholm science II: when the state pays the ransom

Abstract This manuscript deepens the concept of Stockholm Science as an analytical framework for understanding the naturalization of editorial and evaluative domination in the contemporary scientific system. Building on Robert K. Merton’s Matthew effect and Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of scientific capital, it argues that scientific inequalities are reproduced not only through structural mechanisms but also through symbolic processes of internalization and legitimation by peripheral agents. The analysis centers on the APC-based open-access publishing model and its articulation with productivism evaluation systems, showing how the capacity to publish increasingly depends on financial resources and restricted editorial circuits. The manuscript further examines publishing agreements in which the state assumes responsibility for APC payments, interpreting this shift as the institutionalization of Stockholm Science, whereby scientific dependence becomes state based. Such policies may relieve individual researchers but ultimately reinforce market logics and persistent inequalities across regional, institutional, and epistemic dimensions.