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Editors quit Elsevier journal over open-access dispute

Six editors and all 31 board members of Elsevier’s linguistics journal Lingua have resigned in protest of the company’s high pricing and refusal to offer open-access, reports Inside Higher Ed. The editors, who plan to start a new open-access journal when their non-competition contracts expire, said subscriptions to the journal have become ‘unsustainable’ for libraries. According to Inside Higher Ed, it costs an academic library in the US over $2200 (A$3130) for online access and around $2000 (A$2845) for a print copy of the journal, yet according to Lingua’s executive editor Johan Rooryck, most journals publish work by professors whose salaries are paid directly or indirectly with public funds. While the protest is directed at Elsevier, Rooryck said he hoped other journal editors would follow Lingua’s lead. Elsevier said in a statement that ‘Lingua is widely available to the academic community’. ‘It has a range of open access options and is also included in the Research for Life initiatives, enabling access for researchers worldwide.’

 

Category: International news