RE: May issue of the SPARC Open Access Newsletter

[Sandy Thatcher <sgt3@psu.edu>]

Has no publisher ever fired an editor for doing a poor job, which 
resulted in declining subscriptions for a journal?  Let's say an 
editor of a journal on evolutionary theory becomes enamored of 
intelligent design and starts publishing articles purporting to 
confirm that theory?  Or an editor accepts a number of Sokal-type 
hoax articles?  Surely, publishers do not have to stand by if 
they perceive their journals are being harmed by their editors. 
Editors are, after all, under contract, and the terms of such 
contract usually allow for publishers to intervene in such 
circumstances.

Sandy Thatcher


At 12:12 AM -0400 5/15/10, AlanSingleton wrote:

>I thought Pippa's remark was spot on. In forty (!) years I can't 
>recall an intervention of the kind Sandy speculates on - can 
>anyone? Now that I'm an editor rather than publisher, I perhaps 
>have more sympathy for the editor than before, because my only 
>case of intervention was actually with an editor, not an author. 
>This editor, of a 'hard science' journal, took over his 
>editorial to have a rant about the British Royal Family which, I 
>must admit, I thought was a bit 'out of scope' for the subject 
>matter.
>
>Alan
>
>
>Alan Singleton
>Editor
>Learned Publishing
>The Clock Tower
>Horton Hill
>HORTON
>BS37 6QN
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
>[mailto:owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Sandy Thatcher
>Sent: 14 May 2010 05:09
>To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
>Subject: Re: May issue of the SPARC Open Access Newsletter
>
>From: Sandy Thatcher <sgt3@psu.edu>
>To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
>Subject: Re: May issue of the SPARC Open Access Newsletter
>
>I should think that it falls within the scope of a publisher's business
>decision making to exclude certain categories of articles if they believe
>that including them in their journals will do economic damage to them. The
>editors, of course, may object, and they are always free to disassociate
>themselves from any journal whose publisher takes this stance.
>
>Sandy Thatcher