EASE President writes about Journal Ownership on the Scholarly Kitchen


EASE President Pippa Smart has co-authored an article for the Scholarly Kitchen blog with fellow Learned Publishing editor Lettie Conrad.

The article, titled Editorial Independence and Journal Ownership in the Age of Open Science, is an opinion piece about editors and ownership of content and what can be inferred from the editorial departure from the Journal of Informetrics (JOI) and other recent reactions to publisher policies.

The article balances the legal status of ownership of a journal with the editor's input into the content, and questions whether these can be separated and how much 'ownership' a publisher has, versus the editorial team or compile the content for it.

"This concept of journal-as-club remains a prevailing priority and critical organizing principle for many scholars who may feel an allegiance to a journal due to its reputation and “fit” within their community."

Pippa and Lettie posit that this sense of community ownership can lead to excluding the publisher, resulting in the 'mutinies' referenced in the article.

The article has garned several somments, some relatively heated! Worth reading if you haven't already, and perhaps leave your thoughts before the SKitch admin turn off the commenting.

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