Editorial Board Protests Against Elsevier’s Practices
The editorial board of the Journal of Human Evolution (JHE), a prominent Elsevier publication, has witnessed a dramatic mass resignation, leaving only one member behind. In a collective statement, the board cited Elsevier’s “sustained actions” as incompatible with the journal’s ethos and detrimental to its quality and integrity. The resigning members, including the joint editors-in-chief, emeritus editors, and associate editors, accused the publisher of undermining the principles that have guided the journal for 38 years.09
The editors highlighted specific grievances, such as the elimination of essential support roles like copy editors and special issues editors. They claimed that Elsevier’s cost-cutting measures suggested that editors should disregard language accuracy, grammar, and formatting standards, jeopardizing the journal’s credibility. The resigning board members also criticized Elsevier for introducing errors into accepted manuscripts during production, a move they described as counterproductive and damaging to the journal’s reputation.
AI-Driven Changes Spark Controversy
One of the most contentious issues raised was Elsevier’s unannounced integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into the production process. In the fall of 2023, the publisher began using AI to format articles, leading to errors such as the omission of capitalization in proper nouns and the removal of italicization for genera and species. These mistakes not only reversed the editors’ meticulously formatted manuscripts but also embarrassed the journal publicly. Resolving the AI-induced errors took six months of persistent effort from the editorial team. Despite the backlash, Elsevier continues to use AI in its production processes, frequently altering submitted manuscripts in ways that require significant oversight from authors and editors.
Additionally, the resigning editors accused Elsevier of diminishing the editorial board’s autonomy. The publisher now mandates annual contracts for all editors and has reduced the number of associate editors. The long-standing dual-editor-in-chief model, a hallmark of the journal since 1986, was also jeopardized when Elsevier proposed halving the compensation to maintain it.
Concerns Over Accessibility and Growing Discontent
Another major point of contention was the Journal of Human Evolution’s article processing charges, set at $3,990—nearly double those of comparable journals within the field. The resigning editors argued that these fees are prohibitively high for much of the journal’s authorship, undermining the inclusivity and accessibility of the publication.
Attempts to contact Elsevier for a response have so far been unsuccessful, with only out-of-office replies being received. The identity of the lone remaining associate editor has also not been disclosed.
This mass resignation marks the 20th such editorial exit from academic journals since early 2023. The trend has sparked industry-wide debates about the impact of these resignations on publishing practices. Earlier this year, Nature posed a pertinent question: “What do these group exits achieve?” For the Journal of Human Evolution, this upheaval underscores deeper tensions between publishers and academic editors over the future of scholarly publishing.
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