Journal publishing reform

Credit: Michael Eisen

This is a collection of links to information, opinion, activism, and other issues concerning the practices of research journal publishers (particularly in the mathematical sciences). Further contributions are welcome.

The cost of knowledge

The cost of knowledge is a web page at which one may register a protest against the practices of Elsevier by pledging not to submit a paper to an Elsevier journal, not to referee for an Elsevier journal, not to join an editorial board of an Elsevier journal, or some combination of the three. This site was inspired by the following blog post:

• Elsevier - my part in its downfall, Timothy Gowers, January 21, 2012.

A more detailed statement of purpose of the boycott, can be found here. It is written and signed by Scott Aaronson, Douglas N. Arnold, Artur Ávila, John Baez, Folkmar Bornemann, Danny Calegari, Henry Cohn, Ingrid Daubechies, Jordan Ellenberg, Matthew Emerton, Marie Farge, David Gabai, Timothy Gowers, Ben Green, Martin Grötschel, Michael Harris, Frédéric Hélein, Rob Kirby, Vincent Lafforgue, Gregory F. Lawler, Randall J. LeVeque, Laszlo Lovasz, Peter J. Olver, Olof Sisask, Terence Tao, Richard Taylor, Bernard Teissier, Burt Totaro, Lloyd N. Trefethen, Takashi Tsuboi, Marie-France Vigneras, Wendelin Werner, Amie Wilkinson, and G?unter M. Ziegler.

See also the blog associated to the cost of knowledge site. A poster for the protest may be found here.

There have since been many reactions to this protest:

Reactions from blogs

• The cost of knowledge, Timothy Gowers, January 23, 2012.
• Ban Elsevier, John Baez, January 26, 2012.
• Boycott Elsevier!, Scott Aaronson, January 26, 2012.
• The cost of knowledge, Terence Tao, January 26, 2012.
• Why boycott Elsevier?, Adam Harrow, January 27, 2012.
• Publisher's wars, Peter Cameron, January 29, 2012.
• What's wrong with electronic journals, Tim Gowers, January 29, 2012.
• Thinking about Elsevier replacements, David Speyer, January 30, 2012.
• Comfort is the death knell of academia: why I’m standing down as a journal referee, Matthew Todd, LSE Impact Blog, February 1, 2012.
• Boykottiert Elsevier! Unterstützt Open Access!, Martin Ballaschk, February 1, 2012. (German)
• Mysteries of the Elsevier Boycott, Rick Anderson, February 2, 2012.
  • Unraveling (some of) the mysteries of the Elsevier Boycott, Sean Johnson Andrews, February 6, 2012.
  • Multigrain Discussion: Another Response to the Elsevier Boycott, Chuck Hamaker, February 14, 2012.
• The Elsevier Boycott — Does It Make Sense?, Kent Anderson, February 2, 2012.
• You are Elsevier: time to overcome our fears and kill subscription journals, Michael Eisen, February 3, 2012.
  • Eisen calls for Elsevier Boycott - but can we all go OA?, Mark Hoofnagle, February 6, 2012.
• In Defence of Elsevier, David Stern, February 4, 2012.
• More reasons to support the Elsevier boycott, Doug Arnold, IMU blog on mathematical journals, February 5, 2012.
• A more formal statement about mathematical publishing, Timothy Gowers, February 8, 2012.
• Explaining resistance to the Elsevier boycott: Practicalities., DrugMonkey, February 8, 2012.
• When scientists’ and publishers’ motivations align, Zen Faulkes, February 9, 2012.
• About the Elsevier Controversy and Essential Science, PF Anderson, February 11, 2012.
• Journal mega-bundles & TheCostOfKnowledge, Ross Mounce, February 12, 2012.
• Mathematics has an Occupy moment, Cathy O'Neil, February 13, 2012.
• A window of opportunity for Elsevier, Mike Taylor, February 13, 2012.
• 5,000 profs join boycott of Elsevier publications in international “academic spring”, Dennis Johnson, February 14, 2012.
• What comes after the Elsevier boycott? The answer might be found by following the ‘Green’ road to open access, Neil Stewart, LSE Impact Blog, February 15, 2012.
• What’s next in the Elsevier boycott?, Dennis Johnson, Melville House, February 16, 2012.
• Joining the Movement: A Call to Action | Peer to Peer Review Barbara Fister, Library Journal, February 16, 2012
• Boykottiert Elsevier! Ich boykottiere Elsevier!, Gunter Ziegler, February 19, 2012. (German)
• I am not a radical, but I am boycotting Elsevier, Burt Totaro, February 19, 2012.
• Taking Control: More Reasons for the Elsevier Boycott, Aaron Barlow, February 20, 2012.
• The Elsevier Boycott, Zach and Kelly Wienersmith, February 21, 2012. (Podcast)
• The Future of Science Publishing, Kevin Bonham, February 21, 2012.
• Elsevier boycott: Time for librarians to rise up!, John Dupuis, February 21, 2012.
• Elsevier have a right to price their journals as they see fit, but they must be honest in their reasoning and not attack boycotters with untruths, Tim Leunig, LSE Impact blog, February 22, 2012.
• The academic writer’s strike, Inger Mewburn, February 22, 2012.
• Why do we need academic journals in the first place?, Mathew Ingram, GigaOM, February 22, 2012.
• Why boycott Elsevier?, Becky Ward, February 23, 2012.
• Elsevier's strategy and the long war, Sean Johnson Andrews, February 27, 2012.
• Elsevier blinks, once, Library Loon, February 27, 2012.
• "The RWA is dead", Cameron Neylon, ScienceGuide, February 27, 2012.
• Holy poop! They did it! Elsevier withdraws support for the Research Works Act, Michael Taylor, February 27, 2012.
• We won the Battle of the Research Works Act. Now let’s win the War for Open Access., Michael Eisen, February 27, 2012.
• Can Elsevier save itself?, Michael Taylor, February 28, 2012.
• Research Work Act Dead — What Next?, John Baez, February 28, 2012.

News aggregators

• Fields medalist Tim Gowers: Elsevier — my part in its downfall, Hacker News, January 21, 2012
• One mathematician's stance against Elsevier, Reddit, January 22, 2012.
• The Cost of Knowledge: Researchers taking a stand against Elsevier, Hacker News, January 23, 2012.
• Scientists organize Elsevier boycott, Slashdot, January 27, 2012.
• Scientists boycott Elsevier, Metafilter, January 29, 2012.
• Elsevier Publishing Boycott Gathers Steam Among Academics, Hacker News, January 31, 2012.
• The Cost of Knowledge is an online campaign encouraging scientists to boycott Elsevier journals and their high subscription prices. Should knowledge be free?, Reddit, January 30, 2012.
• Thanks to angry mathematicians, Elsevier's publishing model might be about to go up in smoke, Reddit, February 7, 2012.
• The high price of knowledge - should journals charge authors high fees to publish? Is there any other way? Academic publisher Elsevier hit with growing boycott, Reddit, February 18, 2012.
• Publisher Pulls Supports; 'Research Works Act' Killed, Slashdot, February 27, 2012.

Coverage by the media

• Blog blast births boffin boycott of publisher Elsevier, Iain Thomson, the Register, January 28, 2012.
• Elsevier's Publishing Model Might be About to Go Up in Smoke, Tim Worstall, Forbes, January 28, 2012.
• Testify: The Open-Science Movement Catches Fire David Dobbs, Wired, January 30, 2012.
• Elsevier Publishing Boycott Gathers Steam Among Academics, Josh Fischman, The Chronicle of Higher Education, January 30, 2012.
• Will Academics' Boycott Of Elsevier Be The Tipping Point For Open Access -- Or Another Embarrassing Flop?, Glyn Moody, Techdirt, January 31, 2012.
• Scientists and scholars boycott Elsevier over bad business practices and copyright maximalism, Cory Doctorow, Boingboing, January 31, 2012.
• Petition Targeting Elsevier’s Business Practices Begins to Snowball, Michael Kelley, Library Journal, January 31, 2012.
• Academics call for boycott of Elsevier, Charlotte Williams, The Bookseller, January 31, 2012.
• As Journal Boycott Grows, Elsevier Defends Its Practices, Josh Fischman, The Chronicle of Higher Education, January 31, 2012.
• Researchers boycott publisher; will they embrace instant publishing?, John Timmer, Ars Technica, January 31, 2012.
• Boicot científico a Elsevier, Cristina de Martos, El Mundo, January 31, 2012. (Spanish)
• Elsevier in de clinch met wetenschappers, NOS News, January 31, 2012. (Dutch)
• Thousands of Scientists Vow to Boycott Elsevier to Protest Journal Prices, Jop de Vrieze, Science Insider, February 1, 2012.
• Elsevier begins outreach as push-back on publisher threatens to widen, Deborah Weinstein, Medical Marketing & Media, February 1, 2012.
• Scientists Fight For Open Access For Research, Kristina Chew, Care2, February 1, 2012.
• Samsung, CSR, NFL, Elsevier, Motorola: Intellectual Property, Victoria Slind-Flor, Bloomberg, February 1, 2012. (Brief mention only.)
• The Breakfast Meeting: A Week of Negative Ads, and New Chief at Sony, Noam Cohen, New York Times, February 1, 2012. (Brief mention only.)
• Scientists sign petition to boycott academic publisher Elsevier, Alison Flood, the Guardian, February 2, 2012.
• Étonnante fronde de chercheurs contre les revues savantes d’Elsevier, Jean-François Cliche, le Soleil, February 2, 2012. (French)
• Is the Open Science Revolution For Real?, David Dobbs, Wired, February 3, 2012.
• The price of information, the Economist, February 4, 2012.
• Zum Elsevier-Boykott, Klaus Graf, Archivalia, February 5, 2012. (German)
• Academics Revolt Against Elsevier’s Journal Pricing, Robert Andrews, PaidContent, February 6, 2012.
• Spread the word: scientists are tearing down publishers' walls, Alex Holcombe, the Conversation, February 7, 2012.
• Heard on the Hill: University Senate considering boycotting publisher Elsevier; newspaper readership program popular at other places, too; KUMC researcher mentioned in LA Times story on Alzheimer’s, Andy Hyland, LJWorld, February 7, 2012.
• 欧米圏で“学術の春”運動始まる、電子ジャーナル出版大手Elsevierに対し学者たちのボイコット運動が急拡大, editorial, hon.jp Daywatch, Feb 7, 2012. (Japanese)
• Occupy Elsevier?, Bob Grant, the Scientist, February 7, 2012.
• Academics boycott publisher Elsevier, Bernard Lane, the Australian, February 8, 2012.
• Wednesday book news: Bezos, the Elsevier boycott and more, Carolyn Kellogg, Los Angeles Times, February 8, 2012. (Brief mention only.)
• Open access journals: are we asking the right questions?, Martin Paul Eve, the Guardian, February 8, 2012.
• The Academic Spring, Patrick O'Grady, Varsity, February 8, 2012.
• Elsevier defends stance on anti-open-access bill, John Gill, Times Higher Education, February 9, 2012.
• Elsevier boycott gathers pace, John Whitfield, Nature, February 9, 2012.
• Open Science Revolt Occupies Congress, David Dobbs, Wired, February 9, 2012.
• The future of academic publishing, Mike Taylor, the Independent, February 9, 2012.
• Cambridge Professor leads boycott of Elsevier Publications, Emily Loud, the Cambridge Student Online, February 9, 2012.
• Protest launched against journal publisher, Kimberly Barlow, University Times, February 9, 2012.
• A revolution in scientific publishing?, Sina Scherer, JEPS Bulletin, February 10, 2012.
• Elsevier Boycott Grows: MIT Faculty Speak About Participation, Ellen Duranceau, MIT Libraries News, February 10, 2012.
• Cientistas boicotam a maior editora de periódicos do mundo, Sabine Righetti, Folha, February 10, 2012. (Portugese)
• Why scientists are boycotting a publisher, Gareth Cook, the Boston Globe, February 12, 2012.
  • Elsevier committed to universal access to content, sustainable publishing model, Lynne Herndon (former CEO of Cell press), letter to the editor, the Boston Globe, February 16, 2012.
    • Elsevier’s sorry defense of the Research Works Act, Jordan Ellenberg, February 16, 2012.
• The Cost of Knowledge Versus Elsevier: 5,600 Signatures and Growing, Robin Peek, Information Today, February 13, 2012.
• La fronde des chercheurs contre Elsevier, Maurice Mashaal, Pour la Science, February 13, 2012.
• Web freedoms fuel 'academic spring' journal protest, Jacob Aron, New Scientist, February 13, 2012.
• Mathematicians Organize Boycott of a Publisher, Thomas Lin, New York Times, February 13, 2012.
• Science Uprising, Julia Whitty, Mother Jones, February 13, 2012.
• Professors boycott prominent publishing company, Kelsey Cipolla, The University Daily Kansan, February 13, 2012.
• Monopoly on research publishing is unethical, Editorial, The Exponent, February 14, 2012.
• Duke Scholars Join Boycott Against Elsevier, Ashley Yeager, Duke Today, February 14, 2012.
• Academics line up to boycott world’s biggest journal publisher, Justin Norrie, the Conversation, February 15, 2012.
• Reed chief hits back at critics of division, Salamander Davoudi, February 16, 2012.
• Occupy publishing, Timothy Gowers, Times Higher Education, February 16, 2012.
• Academics boycott journal publisher, Eleanor Bell, ABC news, February 17, 2012.
• Trouble for Elsevier, the leading academic publisher, Rick Karr, On the media, NPR, February 17, 2012. (Audio)
  • Some questions for Elsevier, Harry Brighouse, Crooked Timber, February 21, 2012.
• Journal publishers: in strife and in denial, The common room blog, The Australian, February 20, 2012.
• Academics join world fight against publisher, Nicky Phillips, Sydney Morning Herald, February 21, 2012.
• It’s Not Academic: How Publishers Are Squelching Science Communication, Michael Taylor, Discover Magazine, February 21, 2012.
• NHMRC CEO supports Elsevier boycott; says all research must be made open access, Julie Hare, The Australian, February 22, 2012.
• Elsevier Boycott Not a Petition, But “A Declaration of Independence”, David Dobbs, Wired Magazine, February 22, 2012.
• Why Are We Boycotting Elsevier?, Barbara Fister, Inside Higher Ed, February 24, 2012.
• Amid boycott, Elsevier backtracks on research bill, CBC news, February 27, 2012.
• Legislation to Bar Public-Access Requirement on Federal Research Is Dead, Jennifer Howard, Chronicle of Higher Education, February 27, 2012.
• Positive news for access to tax-funded science, Editorial, Newsday, February 27, 2012.

Open letters to Elsevier

• Letter to Elsevier, Rob Kirby, December 30, 1997.
• Call for Boycott of Cell Press Journals, Peter Walter and Keith Yamomoto, October 19, 2003.
  • Researchers boycott Cell Press, Alison McCook, Genome Biology, October 24, 2003.
• Journal of Algorithms editorial board resignation, December 13, 2003.
• Topology editorial board resignation letter, August 10, 2006.
• Arms fairs and academics, 138 signatories, February 28, 2007.
• An open letter to Elsevier and all those involved in the IEHG, Keith Halfacree, April 10, 2007.
• Open Letter to Elsevier, Norbert Lossau, Chair of the Executive Board, Confederation of Open Access Repositories, February 6, 2012.
• Letter to Elsevier, Cynthia Parr, February 10, 2012.
• Declining elsevier, Kent Holsinger, February 10, 2012.
• An Open Letter to Elsevier, Stephen Curry, February 12, 2012.
• A response to one Elsevier employee, and an open letter to the rest, Matt Wedel, February 15, 2012.
• Dear Elsevier employees, with love, from @FakeElsevier, FakeElsevier, February 19, 2012.
• Dear Elsevier, Jan Jensen, February 27, 2012.

Responses by Elsevier

• A response by David Clark at Elsevier, January 23, 2012.
• An open letter to the research community: journal prices, discounts, and access, Elsevier, initially published Feb 6, 2012, then edited slightly on February 27, 2012.
  • Against Own Assertion, Elsevier Doubled Price For Access, Bjorn Brembs, February 11, 2012.
  • Elsevier’s open letter point by point, and some further arguments, Timothy Gowers, February 26, 2012.
• Elsevier and Evolution & Human Behavior, Robert Kurzban (co-editor-in-chief of the Elsevier journal Evolution & Human Behavior), February 6, 2012.
• Elsevier’s Alicia Wise on the RWA, the West Wing, and Universal Access, Richard Poynder, February 9, 2012.
• Elsevier withdraws support for the Research Works Act, Elsevier, February 27, 2012.
  • Even Now The RWA Was Worth It For Elsevier, Bjorn Brembs, February 27, 2012.
• A letter to the mathematics community, Elsevier, February 27, 2012.
• Elsevier withdraws support for the Research Works Act, Chrysanne Lowe, Vice President, Marketing Communications, Elsevier, February 27, 2012.

Other coverage

• Prime Time for Public Access, Heather Joseph, Executive Director, SPARC, February 9, 2012.
• Elsevier’s practices opposing open access, Open Access Infrastructure for Research in Europe, February 16, 2012.
• Values and Scholarship, Joint letter by eleven research provosts, Inside Higher Ed, February 23, 2012.
• The wikipedia page for this protest.

See also this list of links, which is focused more around the Research Works Act, but also contains many links regarding the boycott, as well as Math 2.0, a discussion forum for all topics related to the future of mathematical publishing.

Other pledges, boycotts, and petitions

• Research Without Walls
• Open Access Pledge
• Appel pour des négociations équilibrées avec les éditeurs de revues scientifiques - a petition concerning the bundling and pricing practices of Springer
• A petition to stop the Research Works Act
• Call to action: Tell Congress you support the Bipartisan Federal Research Public Access Act (H.R. 4004 and S. 2096), Alliance for taxpayer access, February 9, 2012.

• See these tag libraries from the Open Access Tracking Project (more comprehensive after April 2009 than before):
  • oa.boycotts
  • oa.declarations
  • oa.petitions
  • oa.pledges

Other blog posts, letters, and opinion pieces

• Comparative price of math journals, Rob Kirby, May 27, 1997.
  • Open letter to Elsevier, Rob Kirby, December 30, 1997.
  • 2000 data update
• Scientific Publishing: A Mathematician’s Viewpoint, Joan Birman, Notices of the American Mathematical Society, 770-774, July 2000.
• One More Revolution to Make: Free Scientific Publishing, Krzysztof R. Apt, Communications of ACM, 44(5), pp. 25-28, 2001.
• Towards free access to scientific literature, Krzysztof R. Apt, Nieuw Archief voor Wiskunde, 5/2 nr. 3, September 2001, pp. 251-255.
• Scholarly Mathematical Communication at a Crossroads, Greg Kuperberg, Nieuw Arch. Wisk., (5) 3 no.3, September 2002.
• Can Peer Review be better Focused?, Paul Ginsparg, March 2003.
• Fleeced?, Rob Kirby, Notices of the American Mathematical Society, 161-162, February 2004.
• We can make a change, Gerard van der Geer, Notices of the American Mathematical Society, May 2004.
• What we can do about journal pricing, Walter Neumann, September 2005.
  • The discussions mentioned in that email led to the Banff protocol (web site now only available through web archive).
• Review of The Access Principle by John Willinsky, Scott Aaronson, 2006
• Scientific Publishing in the Internet Era Efthymios Constantinides June 17, 2008
• Publishing economics harm science's credibility, Chris Lee, Ars Technica, November 2008.
• Integrity under attack: The State of Scholarly Publishing, Douglas Arnold, SIAM news, December 2009.
• Why Hasn’t Scientific Publishing Been Disrupted Already?, Michael Clarke, January 4, 2010.
• What We Can Do About Science Journals, John Baez, January 24, 2011.
• What might be done about high prices of journals?, IMU blog on mathematical journals, July 12, 2011.
• The lairds of learning George Monbiot, August 29, 2011.
  • Serials crisis and corn laws, Francis Sedgemore, September 7, 2011.
• Academic publishers make Murdoch look like a socialist, George Monbiot, the Guardian, August 29, 2011.
• Peers, review your actions, Michael Taylor, Times Higher Education, September 29, 2011.
• How might we get to a new model of mathematical publishing?, Timothy Gowers, October 31, 2011.
  • A more modest proposal, Timothy Gowers, November 3, 2011.
  • A timeline of the debate initiated by this post, Peter Krautzberger, November 26, 2011.
• Research Bought, Then Paid For, Michael B. Eisen, New York Times opinion piece, January 10, 2012
  • Should Research Be More Freely Available?, Jeffrey M. Drazen (Editor in Chief of The New England Journal of Medicine), Gene D. Sprouse (treasurer of APS), and Joseph W. Serene (publisher at APS), letters to the New York Times, January 23, 2012.
• Academic publishers have become the enemies of science, Mike Taylor, the Guardian, January 16, 2011.
  • Branding academic publishers 'enemies of science' is offensive and wrong, Graham Taylor, January 27, 2011.
  • Elsevier, double-dipping, and the NHS, Ben Toth, February 11, 2012.
• Nature’s shiny sounding copout on open access, Michael Eisen, January 26, 2012.
• Publishers invent a whole new form of evil: suing their customers, Mike Taylor, SV-POW, January 27, 2012.
• Why I chose to decline an invitation to review by Elsevier, Stephen Curry, January 28, 2012.
• Journals and the arXiv, Scott Morrison, February 1, 2012.
• scientific journals in the e-publishing age, Phillip Thrift, February 1, 2012.
• Abstract thoughts about online review systems, Tim Gowers, February 2, 2012.
• The Research Works Act and the breakdown of mutual incomprehension, Cameron Neylon, February 3, 2012.
• A forum on mathematical publishing, Scott Morrison, February 9, 2012.
• The moral imperative for Open Science, Russell Neches, February 9, 2012.
• The Federal Research Public Access Act, John Baez, February 10, 2012.
• The parable of the farmers and the Teleporting Duplicator, Michael Taylor, the Guardian, February 10, 2012.
• Why isn’t anyone publishing open-access articles in Elsevier journals?, Mike Taylor, February 11, 2012.
• How you can help the Federal Research Public Access Act (FRPAA) become law, Michael Nielsen (interviewing Heather Joseph), February 14, 2012.
• Elsevier Filters Recommendation Engine to Show Elsevier Titles Only, LISNews, February 14, 2012.
• The Dangerous “Research Works Act”, Richard Price, TechCrunch, February 15, 2012.
• A thorn in the side for science publishers, Wolfram Neubauer, February 17, 2012.
  • Elsevier and Springer Sue University Library, John Baez, February 20, 2012.
• Make tax-funded scientific research public, Editorial, Newsday, February 26, 2012.
• Women in math, and the overhaul of the publishing system, Izabella Laba, February 26, 2012.

Media

• PR's 'pit bull' takes on open access, Jim Giles, Nature, January 25, 2007. Summary: A coalition of scientific publishers (including Elsevier, Wiley, and the American Chemical Society) organises to oppose open access.
• Reed Elsevier makes its final farewell to arms, Katie Allen, the Guardian, 30 May 2008. Summary: Reed Elsevier was until 2009 organizing arms trade fairs.
  • Lessons from the Campaign against Elsevier "We won, but how did we win?", Tom Stafford, ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies 2009, 8 (3), 494-504.
  • Campaign success: Reed Elsevier sells international arms fairs, Campaign against arms trade, March 9, 2009.
• Elsevier Published 6 Fake Journals, Bob Grant, The Scientist, May 7, 2009. Summary: Elsevier was paid by unnamed pharmaceutical companies to publish six journals that looked like independent peer-reviewed medical journals, but which were not.
  • The wikipedia page on these six journals.
  • The Elsevier fake-journal tally eventually rose to nine.
  • The danger of drugs... and data, Ben Goldacre, the Guardian, May 8, 2009.
  • Elsevier press release on this incident, May 7, 2009.
• Elsevier Won't Pay for Praise, Scott Jashik, Inside Higher Ed, June 23, 2009. Summary: Elsevier suspends its practice of offering Amazon gift cards to anyone who would give their textbooks a five-star rating.

Other Information

• On Elsevier
  • Reed Elsevier's 2009 report Elsevier reported a profit of 1.1 billion dollars on revenue of 3.2 billion dollars.
  • Criticism and controversies of Elsevier (Wikipedia)
  • Elsevier support for the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) (Gizmodo)
    • List of organizations with official stances on the Stop Online Piracy Act (Wikipedia)
  • Elsevier support for the Research Works Act (RWA) (Michael Nielsen)
    • Elsevier needs to get out more (Richard Poynder)
    • Elsevier = evil (Phyrangula)
    • Elsevier-funded NY Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney Wants to Deny Americans Access to Taxpayer Funded Research (Michael Eisen)
      • A response by Tom Reller (Vice President and Head of Global Corporate Relations at Elsevier)
    • Note however that the editorial board of the Lancet, a very prestigious medical journal published by Elsevier, has come out strongly against the Research Works Act. Also, rival publisher Wiley has no plans to support the act.
    • A message to the research community: Elsevier, access, and the Research Works Act, Elsevier, February 3, 2012.
    • Elsevier withdrew its support for the Research Works Act on February 27, 2012. Several hours later, the act was withdrawn by its Congressional sponsors.
  • Elsevier submission to the Office of Science and Technology Policy on open access, January 2012.
    • Elsevier tries to block institutional OA mandates, Jan Hagerlid, January 31, 2012.
  • Why commercial publishers are good for research, Arie Jongejan, CEO Science & Technology, Elsevier, Autumn 2003.
  • Elsevier's policy on authors making their papers available on preprint servers (Short version: Elsevier allows draft versions of papers to be placed on public servers such as the arXiv, and revised versions of papers to be placed on personal or institutional pages, but final versions of papers are only permitted at the journal site itself.)

• Stock analyses and financial data of Elsevier and other publishers
  • Scientific Publishing: Knowledge is Power, Morgan Stanley, September 20, 2002.
  • Reed Elsevier: The inevitable crunch point – downgrading to under perform because of growing concerns on Elsevier, Bernstein Research, March 10, 2011.
  • Reed Elsevier, Bringing down the house – Why Elsevier is vulnerable in its upcoming Big Deal negotiations, Bernstein Research, March 29, 2011.
  • Occupy Elsevier, Bernstein Research, February 6, 2012.
  • Noise around boycott against Elsevier offers short term trading opportunity, Exane Paribas, February 7, 2012.
    • A tale of two analysts, Cameron Neylon, February 15, 2012.
• Reed Elsevier's 2012 annual report (form 20-F) filing with the SEC

• On open access
  • Open Access
  • Open Access Directory
  • Open Access Overview (Peter Suber)

• On scholarly journals
  • The serials crisis Judith Panitch and Sarah Michalak, A White Paper for the UNC-Chapel Hill Scholarly Communications Convocation, January, 2005.
  • AMS Journal Price Survey
    • Math Journal Price Survey, from 2008 data.
  • Journal subscription prices have increased far more rapidly than either inflation or spending on research
  • A summary of journal price averages in various disciplines including mathematics as of 2010 (see also the parent site, which contains more detailed information).
  • Big Deal Contract Project - an analysis of journal bundling contracts, and the attempts by publishers such as Elsevier to prevent them from becoming public.
  • Open access journal business models (from the Open Access Directory)
  • Best Current Practices for Journals, endorsed by the International Mathematical Union general assembly, August 16, 2010.
  • Mathematics journals: what is valued and what may change, Report of the workshop held at MSRI, Berkeley, California on February 14 – 16 2011.

• Miscellaneous links
  • The Crisis in Scientific Publishing - a collection of links hosted by the University of Maryland.
  • Academic publishing - a wiki collection of links at the Azimuth project.

Elsevier mathematics journals

This list is taken from here

• Acta Mathematica Scientia
• Advances in Applied Mathematics
• Advances in Engineering Software
• Advances in Mathematics (*)
• Annales de l'Institut Henri Poincaré (C) Analyse Non Linéaire
• Annals of Pure & Applied Logic (*)
• Annales Scientifiques de l'École Normale Supérieure (Until 2008)
  • This journal is now published by the Société mathématique de France.
• Annual Reviews in Control
• Applied & Computional Harmonic Analysis
  • Ingrid Daubechies resigned her position as editor-in-chief in 2012, according to her statement on the Elsevier boycott site.
• Applied Mathematical Modelling
• Applied Mathematics & Computation
• Applied Mathematics Letters
  • Applied Mathematics Letters posts apology for retracting Intelligent Design-friendly paper, Retraction Watch, 13 June 2011.
  • Second thoughts result in payout, Paul Jump, Times Higher Education, 16 June 2011.
• Applied Numerical Mathematics
• Artificial Intelligence
• Automatica
• Biometric Technology Today
• Biosystems
• Bulletin des Sciences Mathématiques
• Chaos, Solitons & Fractals
  • There was a significant amount of controversy regarding the quality control at this journal during the tenure of a past editor-in-chief, who stepped down in 2009. Unfortunately, most of the primary reporting on this has been taken down due to ongoing litigation.
  • The Wikipedia section on this issue
  • L’affaire El Naschie, Secret Blogging Seminar, November 30, 2008.
  • Integrity under attack: The State of Scholarly Publishing, Douglas Arnold, SIAM news, December 2009.
  • Nature journal libel case begins, Pallab Ghosh, BBC News, November 11, 2011.
• Communications in Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation
• Comptes Rendus Mathematique
• Computational Geometry
• Computational Statistics & Data Analysis
• Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering
• Computers & Mathematics with Applications
  • A computer application in mathematics, M. Sivasubramanian, S. Kalimuthu, in Computers and Mathematics with Applications, vol. 59 (2010) pp. 296-297. (This article is discussed in this blog post on the IMU mathematics journal blog, and is also available here.)
  • The editorial board was replaced in 2012.
• Control Engineering Practice
• Differential Geometry and its Applications (*)
• Discrete Applied Mathematics
• Discrete Mathematics
• Discrete Optimization
• Electronic Notes in Discrete Mathematics
• Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science
• Engineering Analysis with Boundary Elements
• Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence
• European Journal of Combinatorics (*)
  • Gunther Ziegler resigned his position as an editor of this journal in 2012.
• European Journal of Operational Research
• Expositiones Mathematicae
• Finite Fields and their Applications (*)
• Fuzzy Sets and Systems
• Historia Mathematica
• Indagationes Mathematicae
• Information Sciences
• International Journal of Forecasting
• International Journal of Non-Linear Mechanics
• Journal de Mathématiques Pures et Appliquées
• Journal of Algebra (*)
• Journal of Algorithms
  • Editorial board resignation, December 13, 2003.
  • Editorial Board of Scientific Journal Quits, Accusing Elsevier of Price-Gouging, Brock Read, the Chronicle of Higher Education, February 9, 2004.
• Journal of Applied Logic
• Journal of Approximation Theory
• Journal of Combinatorial Theory, series A (*)
  • Gunther Ziegler resigned his position as an editor of this journal in 2012.
• Journal of Combinatorial Theory, series B (*)
• Journal of Complexity
• Journal of Computational & Applied Mathematics
• Journal of Computer and System Sciences
• Journal of Differential Equations
• Journal of Discrete Algorithms
• Journal of Econometrics
• Journal of Functional Analysis (*)
• Journal of Geometry and Physics
• Journal of Mathematical Analysis & Applications
• Journal of Mathematical Economics
• Journal of Multivariate Analysis
• Journal of Number Theory (*)
  • Marie-France Vigneras resigned her position as an editor in 2012, according to her statement on the Elsevier boycott site.
• Journal of Process Control
• Journal of Pure & Applied Algebra (*)
• Journal of Statistical Planning & Inference
• Journal of the Franklin Institute
• Journal of the Korean Statistical Society
• Linear Algebra and its Applications (*)
• Mathematical and Computer Modelling
• Mathematical Biosciences
• Mathematical Social Science
• Mathematics and Computers in Simulation
• Neural Networks
• Nonlinear Analysis
  • On the second part of Hilbert's 16th problem, E. Oxenhielm, Nonlinear Analysis 57 (1), April 2004.
    • Historic maths problem 'cracked' David Whitehouse, BBC, November 27, 2003.
    • Elin Oxenhielm update, Peter Lindberg, December 3, 2003.
    • Mathematicians dispute proof of century-old problem, John Whitfield, Nature, December 9, 2003.
    • Struggling for sixteen, Rachel Thomas, Plus magazine, December 16, 2003.
    • The paper was eventually withdrawn from the journal by the editors.
  • On some contradictory computations in multi-dimensional mathematics, L. Carvalho, Nonlinear Analysis 63 (5-7), November 2005, 725--734. (Claims that the change of variables formula is incorrect.)
    • A New Bogdanoff Affair?, David Corfield, March 28, 2006.
    • A comment on: On some contradictory computations in multi-dimensional mathematics, E. Capelas de Oliveira, W. Rodrigues, Nonlinear Anal. 67 (7), October 2007, 2316–2320.
    • As of 2012, the original paper of Carvalho has not been retracted from the journal. (However, it is no longer listed as a publication on Carvalho's web page.)
  • This is me losing all faith in Nonlinear Analysis, Mikael Johansson, March 28, 2006.
• Nonlinear Analysis: Hybrid Systems
• Nonlinear Analysis: Real world applications
• Operations Research Letters
• Pattern Recognition
• Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications
• Physica D: Nonlinear Phenomena
• Simulation Modelling Practice & Theory
• Statistical Methodology
• Statistics and Probability Letters
• Stochastic Processes and their Applications (*)
• Systems & Control Letters
• Topology
  • Editorial board resignation letter, 10 August 2006
  • A Rebellion Erupts Over Journals Of Academia, Gary Shapiro, New York Sun, 26 October, 2006.
  • Jumping Ship: Topology editorial board resigns, Allyn Jackson, Notices of the American Mathematical Society, May 2007.
  • Wikipedia page on the journal
  • This journal was discontinued in 2012.
• Topology & its Applications (*)
  • In 2001, a group of editors of this journal resigned to form Algebraic & Geometric Topology.

(*) On February 27, 2012, Elsevier announced that the archives of these 14 journals, from 1995 to four years before the current date, would be made open access.

Open Access journals

• These lists are taken from the Directory of Open Access Journals (limited to peer-reviewed journals).
  • Perhaps someone could spell out or cut/paste the DOAJ lists below, like the Elsevier list above.

• In mathematics

• In statistics

• In computer science, e.g.
  • Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research
  • Logical Methods in Computer Science
  • Journal of Machine Learning Research
  • Theory of Computing
  • Journal of Universal Computer Science
  • Chicago Journal of Theoretical Computer Science

• In physics, e.g.
  • Physical Review X
  • The New Journal of Physics

Mathematics journal price tables

The following tables list the ten most expensive mathematics journals by volume list price (as of 2008), and (for comparison) the ten mathematics journals with the highest impact factor (as of 2000). One should caution that due to complicated (and, in some cases, deliberately obscured) bundling agreements, the actual price of subscriptions to many journals (including Elsevier journals) may differ somewhat from the official list price. Nevertheless, these tables should convey the rough order of magnitude, at least, of journal costs from publisher to publisher.

Data is drawn from this set of 2007 journal price data and this list of 2000 ISI impact factors. All prices in US dollars.

Top ten mathematics journals by volume list price

Title	Publisher	Price/volume	Price/page
J. Math. Sci. (New York)	Springer	9998	1.38
Theoret. Comput. Sci.	Elsevier	6551	1.02
J. Math. Anal. Appl.	Academic Press/Elsevier	6362	0.36
J. Algebra	Academic Press/Elsevier	5736	0.51
Nonlinear Anal.	Elsevier	5426	0.84
Discrete Math.	Elsevier	5269	1.63
Appl. Math. Comput.	Elsevier	5250	0.38
Math. Methods Appl. Sci.	Wiley/Teubner	4995	2.09
Linear Algebra Appl.	Elsevier	4885	0.94
Math. Nachr.	Wiley/VCH Verlag	4795	2.58

Top ten mathematics journals by impact factor

Title	Publisher	Price/volume	Price/page
Bull. Amer. Math. Soc.	American Mathematical Society	418	0.64
Acta Mathematica	Institut Mittag-Leffler	392	0.65
J. Amer. Math. Soc.	American Mathematical Society	287	0.24
Comm. Pure Appl. Math.	Wiley	3205	1.74
Inventiones Mathemat.	Springer-Verlag	3232	1.21
Annals of Mathematics	Princeton University Press	260	0.13
Advances in Mathematics	Elsevier/Academic Press	3221	0.41
Mem. Amer. Math. Soc.	American Mathematical Society	N/A	N/A
Commun. Contemp. Math.	World Scientific	483	0.51
Geom. Func. Anal.	Springer/Birkhauser	1185	0.88

Data from libraries

Pricing data from libraries is often hard to come by (for instance, many bundling contracts come with confidentiality agreements). More links in this section would be greatly appreciated.

• Here is a list of the 10 most expensive journals subscribed to by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology as of 2010/2011. 8 of the 10 are published by Elsevier.
• Elsevier Fact Sheet, MIT libraries. MIT avoids bundling in order to obtain flexibility in its subscriptions, but pays Elsevier almost $2 million/year for its journals.
• According to this news article, Purdue pays Elsevier $2.3 million/year for digital access to its journals, with price increases of approximately 5 percent per year.
• The Bundle Contract Project seeks to collect bundling contracts from commercial publishers.