Over the holiday weekend, all but one member of the editorial board of Elsevier’s Journal of Human Evolution (JHE) resigned “with heartfelt sadness and great regret,” according to Retraction Watch, which helpfully provided an online PDF of the editors’ full statement.
Resignation of Editorial Board Members
The editorial board cited several changes made over the last ten years that it believes are counter to the journal’s longstanding editorial principles. These included eliminating support for a copy editor and a special issues editor, leaving it to the editorial board to handle those duties. When the board expressed the need for a copy editor, Elsevier’s response, they said, was “to maintain that the editors should not be paying attention to language, grammar, readability, consistency, or accuracy of proper nomenclature or formatting.”
Restructuring of Editorial Board
There is also a major restructuring of the editorial board underway that aims to reduce the number of associate editors by more than half, which “will result in fewer AEs handling far more papers, and on topics well outside their areas of expertise.”
Loss of Editorial Independence
Furthermore, there are plans to create a third-tier editorial board that functions largely in a figurehead capacity, after Elsevier “unilaterally took full control” of the board’s structure in 2023 by requiring all associate editors to renew their contracts annually—which the board believes undermines its editorial independence and integrity.
Worst Practices
In-house production has been reduced or outsourced, and in 2023 Elsevier began using AI during production without informing the board, resulting in many style and formatting errors as well as reversing versions of papers that had already been accepted and formatted by the editors. “This was highly embarrassing for the journal 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 regularly reformats submitted manuscripts to change meaning and formatting and require extensive author and editor oversight during proof stage.”
Autor Page Charges
In addition, the author page charges for JHE are significantly higher than even Elsevier’s other for-profit journals, as well as broad-based open access journals like Scientific Reports. Not many of the journal’s authors can afford those fees, “which runs counter to the journal’s (and Elsevier’s) pledge of equality and inclusivity,” the editors wrote.
Breaking Point
The breaking point seems to have come in November, when Elsevier informed coeditors Mark Grabowski (Liverpool John Moores University) and Andrea Taylor (Touro University California College of Osteopathic Medicine) that it was ending the dual-editor model that has been in place since 1986. When Grabowki and Taylor protested, they were told the model could only remain if they took a 50 percent cut in their compensation.
Conclusion
The resignation of the editorial board members of the Journal of Human Evolution is a stark reminder of the challenges facing the scientific publishing industry. The controversy surrounding Elsevier’s business model and the concerns of the editorial board members highlight the need for transparency and accountability in the publishing process.
FAQs
Q: What was the main reason for the resignation of the editorial board members?
A: The editorial board members cited several changes made by Elsevier that they believed were counter to the journal’s longstanding editorial principles, including the elimination of support for a copy editor and a special issues editor, as well as a major restructuring of the editorial board that aimed to reduce the number of associate editors.
Q: What are the concerns about Elsevier’s use of AI during production?
A: The editorial board members expressed concerns that Elsevier’s use of AI during production led to many style and formatting errors, as well as reversing versions of papers that had already been accepted and formatted by the editors.
Q: Why did the editorial board members resign?
A: The editorial board members resigned due to their deep concerns about the changes made by Elsevier, which they believed undermined the journal’s editorial independence and integrity, and the author page charges that were significantly higher than other for-profit journals and open access journals.
