Submitted by George Porter, Oct 27, 2006 13:38

There is an ongoing revolution in academic publishing. The rebellion of the distinguished members of the Topology editorial board is one of the most recent skirmishes. Peter Suber has compiled a list of "Journal declarations of independence", which includes 14 such rebellions through January 2004.

Elsevier spokesman, David Ruth's contention that this incident is a " ... pretty rare occurrence" should be considered advisedly. Of the thousands of academic journals published, roughly half of the affected titles have been published by Elsevier. None of the journals whose editorial boards have resigned en masse have been published by scholarly societies or university presses.

Dana Roth, Caltech, did an analysis of the cost/page of a variety of math journals last year. His numbers speak for themselves.

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