Journal of Algorithms Board to Resign Due to High Journal Prices

Rumor has it the editorial board of Elsevier’s Journal of Algorithms has stepped down due to “the prices being charged by commercial publishers of scientific journals.”
In October Professor Don Knuth wrote a fantastic long letter to the editorial board of the Journal of Algorithms, explaining the current state of affairs. He has it on his web site (Look for “Crisis in Scientific Publishing”) with hopes that it will be helpful to anybody else who is trying to deal with this serious problem.

note: if this was just rumor I wouldn’t post it, but I’ve not been able to find an “official announcement” yet, I was told to watch SIGACT News for the final word.

February 4, 2004 by Uncategorized 6

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6 Responses

  1. Walt says:
    February 4, 2004 at 10:02 pm

    Good authority
    Peter Suber’s Open Access News weblog gives that as a confirmed story, and Peter doesn’t get this sort of thing wrong.

    He says that the editorial board resigned on the last day of 2003 and has now started a new ACM-published journal, Transactions on Algorithms.

    People might find Suber’s list of editorial board resignations and new-journal foundings interesting.

    Reply
  2. mcbride says:
    February 4, 2004 at 11:00 pm

    Re:Good authority
    Now the revolution needs go further and extend to academic researchers. Refusal to publish in journals that overcharge is a start. Although the connotations might be taken the wrong way, maybe we need an old fashioned ‘journal burning’ bonfire. Not to protest the content, but the price. It will change as more and more protests and cancellations happen.

    Everyone please take a look at the quality publication from the Public Library of Science – PLoS Biology. Free, electronic, open to everyone. It’s a quality publication with quality research. We’ll probably see more of this in the coming years.

    Reply
  3. Anna says:
    February 5, 2004 at 12:01 am

    Hm… what about an algorithm journal?
    PLoS Biology is a great test project, but I think the computer science people would be happier with something in their field of study.

    Reply
  4. mcbride says:
    February 5, 2004 at 12:10 am

    Re:Hm… what about an algorithm journal?
    I wouldn’t call it a test project as much as a model for future public journals. PLoS Medicine will be released in 2004, and it will begin the transition in the field of medical journals. Each step will lead to something better, even if they are baby steps (What About Bob?).

    The method of distribution, peer-review, it’s all the same regardless of scientific discipline. Content is the only thing holding it back.

    Reply
  5. Walt says:
    February 5, 2004 at 1:26 am

    Re:”begin the transition”?
    PLoS is great at publicity, but, fact is, biomedical open-access journals with much lower author costs and the same zero reader costs aren’t new; BioMed Central has been around for a while and currently publishes a hundred OA journals in biology and medicine.

    Not that it’s a competition (it’s not), but PLoS shouldn’t get pioneering credit in this area.

    Reply
  6. Anonymous says:
    February 5, 2004 at 5:43 am

    A bit more here
    @ Colorado.edu, it’s some good reading.

    Reply

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