A well-known academic journal is undergoing a revolution among their editors. All six editors and the entire editorial board of the well-respected linguistics journal Lingua resigned. Fortune brought this news to us in their article, “Elsevier Mutiny: Cracks Are Widening in the Fortress of Academic Publishing.”
There is quite a lot of angst in the world of academic publishing these days. In some ways, academic publishers are going through the same kind of change that traditional media companies like newspaper and magazine publishers are experiencing.
According to the journal’s executive editor Johan Rooryck, the mass resignation is a way of protesting the business model of owner and publisher Elsevier—a subsidiary of London-based information giant RELX Group, formerly known as Reed Elsevier.
Like other academic publishers, Elsevier charges universities and researchers a fairly large fee to access its journals. This model has come under fire from both academics and non-academics for some time.
Melody K. Smith
Sponsored by Data Harmony, a unit of Access Innovations, the world leader in indexing and making content findable.
