During vacation weekend, all but one member of Elsevier's editorial board Journal of human evolution (JHE) resigned “with sincere sadness and profound regret,” according to Retraction Trackinghas helpfully provided one Online PDF Full statement by the editors. Today is the 20th mass resignation from a scientific journal from 2023 on various points of contention, according to Retraction Watch, many of which respond to controversial changes in the business model used by the scientific publishing industry.
“This is an exceptionally painful decision for each of us,” the board members wrote in their statement. “The editors who have managed the journal for the past 38 years have invested a great deal of time and energy in making JHE the leading journal of paleoanthropological research and remain loyal and committed to the journal as well like our authors long after their terms have ended. The (associate editors) are equally loyal and dedicated. We all care deeply about our journal, our discipline, and our academic community; However, we find that we can no longer work with Elsevier in good conscience.”
The editorial board cited a number of changes made in the past ten years that they believed went against the magazine's long-standing editorial principles. These include eliminating support for copy editors and special issues editors, leaving it to the editorial staff to handle those tasks. When the panel expressed the need for a copy editor, they said Elsevier's response was “to assert that editors should pay no attention to language, grammar, readability, consistency or accuracy of nomenclature or proper format”.
There is also a major restructuring of the editorial board that aims to reduce the number of contributing editors by more than half, which “will result in fewer AEs handling more articles and on topics outside their field of expertise.
Furthermore, there are plans to establish a third-level editorial board that will operate largely as a puppet, after Elsevier “unilaterally took full control” of the board's structure in 2023 by requiring all Associate editors renew their contracts annually—something the board believes undermines its independence and editorial integrity.
Worst practice
In-house production was reduced or outsourced, and in 2023, Elsevier began using AI in production without informing the board, leading to many styling and formatting errors as well as reverse the versions of the article that have been approved and formatted by the editors. “This was deeply embarrassing for the magazine, and resolution took six months and was achieved only through the persistent efforts of the editors,” the editors wrote. “AI processing continues to be used and frequently reformats submitted manuscripts to change meaning and format, and requires close supervision by authors and editors during the prove.”
Additionally, author page fees for JHE are significantly higher than for Elsevier's other for-profit journals, as well as broadly open access journals such as Scientific Reports. Not many of the journal's authors can afford those fees, the editors write, “which runs counter to the journal's (and Elsevier's) commitment to equality and inclusion.”
The breaking point seemed to come in November, when Elsevier informed editors Mark Grabowski (Liverpool John Moores University) and Andrea Taylor (California Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine) that it was ending the model. Dual editorial has existed since 1986. When Grabowki and Taylor protested, they were told that the models could only survive if they cut their compensation by 50%.