Elsevier journal editors ‘may be asked to resign’

Universities in the Netherlands are preparing to ask their researchers to resign from editorial positions with Elsevier journals amid a deadlock over a new subscription deal with the publisher, writes Paul Jump for Times Higher Education.

The universities have been in dispute with the Amsterdam-based publisher since late last year after they refused to renew their “big deal”, via which they get access to all of Elsevier’s subscription journals, unless Elsevier permitted, without significant price rises, 60% of the country’s scientific output to be open access by 2019 and 100% by 2024.

The Association of Universities in the Netherlands has surveyed Dutch editors-in-chief of Elsevier journals to assess their willingness to resign their positions in order to impose further pressure on the publisher. If this does not work, it will reportedly go on to ask Dutch researchers to stop reviewing for Elsevier journals, and may, as a last resort, ask them to stop publishing their papers in the publisher’s titles.
Full report on the Times Higher Education site