Mutiny! On the High Seas of Academic Publishing
You may have seen the recent news that the editors of the Journal of Algebraic Combinatorics have joined the likes of the Lingua Editorial Board and have quit en masse in order to start their own open access journal.
Incidents like this raise questions about journal ownership, and what value different groups are bringing to established journals. A common complaint among academics is that they do the majority of the grunt work in the publication process - writing the article, providing reviews and making final decisions, but still have little control over the journal itself. Academics are the editors and make up the editorial boards of journals. They drive the editorial direction of the journal, provide subject expertise and support the community that contributes to and uses the journal. So why do the Publishers hold all the power?
If a publisher owns the journal, they make the crucial decisions that affect who can access the work that is published in it. The licences that are available to authors, the cost of article processing charges, and the cost of subscriptions if the journal is not published open access. These choices can have huge affects on the communities reliant on journals to stay up to date on their field, communities that the journal is meant to serve. Increasingly, editorial boards have been asking if working with legacy publishers is the best way to ensure journals are serving their community.
This has led to some editors and boards to reassess how their journal is published. If they are the ones doing the hard work and the bringing the subject knowledge and expertise to a journal, do they really need a legacy publisher to run the publishing operations? With the advent of more publishing services which allow editorial teams to easily publish a journal, without the need to deal with building the back-end publishing systems, this has become a lot easier.
Without the need for things like printing schedules, distribution networks and sales agents, open access journals are a perfect way for academic editors and boards to step into the publisher’s shoes. Companies like ours allow academics to run journals easily, without having to deal with the complexities behind the scenes. This allows researchers to build the perfect journal to suit their community, one that is truly accessible to all.
So, maybe now is the time to think about who is really bringing the value to your journal. Is it serving the community and, if unshackled from a traditional publisher, could it serve your community better?
If you would like to talk about launching a journal, we would love to discuss it with you. Contact us at partnerships@veruscript.com or lisa@veruscript.com
