Editors at Philosophy & Public Affairs Resign; Will Launch New OA Journal – Daily Nous
The executive, associate, and advisory editors and all of the editorial board members of one of the most influential journals in moral and political philosophy, Philosophy & Public Affairs, have resigned en masse.
According to their statement (below), crucial aims of scholarly journals are “not well-served by commercial publishing.” Philosophy & Public Affairs is published by Wiley, the sixth largest publishing corporation in the world by revenue (over $2 billion annually).
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“…if Wiley permits it.” 11 Wiley journals with mass editorial resignations. Thus far. The monopoly power of behemoths like Wiley that’ve promulgated a profit driven model have served scholarly journals very poorly, degrading their ‘charters’, undermining independence, shifting cost burdens to scholars, libraries, and importantly a citizen public who subscribe to these journals who couldn’t afford it even working 4 jobs. Frankly speaking, as I’ve reflected numerous times here in regard to my beloved Antipode journal, Wiley’s controlling influence has been a toxic one. And this is where we’ve now landed. What happened at Antipode – notably its ‘curiously’ muted editorial stance vis a vis Wiley’s power to drive its access points, and thus pricing, cancelling the printed editions, etc – is a non too blunt warning that these monopoly arrangements never serve the social good. They never have.
Its refreshing that editorial staff at those 11 journals have drawn a line, done so collectively, and taken other routes for publishing scholarly research. A strong beginning but it’s only that. [ I’d urge the editorial board at Antipode to reconsider their position and do the same, but I imagine they won’t or can’t ]. What of the commercial ‘obligations’ of these editorial collectives who signed up to Wiley’s contractual arrangements in the first place when they exercise disproportionate power across the table?