Subject: JAL editors resign
Peter Graham (psgraham@syr.edu)
Date: Thu, 15 Apr 1999 13:19:12 -0400
Message-Id: <37161F90.9F6B28E0@syr.edu> Date: Thu, 15 Apr 1999 13:19:12 -0400 From: Peter Graham <psgraham@syr.edu> To: arl-ejournal@arl.org Subject: JAL editors resign
I want to note with applause the action of Sue Martin and others to
resign from the JAL editorial board over concerns about Elsevier
ownership. --pg
=========================
Library Journal's Academic Newswire(TM): The Book Report
April 15, 1999
[...]
JAL BOARD MEMBERS RESIGN OVER ELSEVIER PURCHASE
"With the journal being purchased we are placed in a
position of writing for and getting honoraria from a
publisher we have been castigating for years about high
prices," explained Susan K. Martin, university librarian at
Georgetown, when asked why she was leaving her post as a
features editor at the JOURNAL OF ACADEMIC LIBRARIANSHIP.
"We have been suggesting to our faculty for years that they
not be on Elsevier's editorial boards, now we find
ourselves with a moral dilemma." For more than half of the
editorial board as well as several columnists and editor
Gloriana St. Clair, the answer to that quandary is to
resign from the journal.
Everyone does not agree, however. Editor-in-Chief Peter
Hernon, some board members, and several columnists will
remain. Where Martin sees a need to act consistently with a
previously stated position, Hernon's main concern was
protecting the reputation of the journal. "The journal is
highly regarded in other disciplines as well, you don't
just throw that aside," said Hernon, professor at Simmons
College GSLIS. An editorial board member speaking off the
record noted a "dichotomy between librarians who manage
libraries, have been cutting journals, and counseling
faculty, and, on the other side, librarians who are in
library schools and see this as a part of the tenure
process." Supporting this view is a study by Ronald F. Dow,
another departing board member, who asked authors of recent
articles if they would withhold future work from an
Elsevier publication; Dow said "very few" were willing to
write off the journal. No word on where that study will be
published. [...]
-- Peter Graham Syracuse University Library psgraham@syr.edu Syracuse, NY 13244-2010 315/443-2573 fax 315/443-2060 9/98nw4.4
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