Editors at Science Journal quit en masse over poor use of AI and high fees

During vacation This weekend, all but one member of Elsevier’s editorial board Journal of Human Evolution (JHE) resigned “with great sadness and great regret” According to the retreat hourwhich was helpfully presented PDF online From the full editors’ statement. It’s the twentieth day Collective resignation of a scientific journal since 2023 over various points of contention, according to Retraction Watch, many in response to controversial changes in business models used by the scientific publishing industry.

“This has been an exceptionally painful decision for each of us,” board members wrote in their statement. “The editors who have overseen the journal over the past 38 years have invested enormous time and energy in making JHE the leading journal in paleoanthropological research and have remained loyal and committed to the journal and our authors long after their terms have ended. They (the associate editors) have been equally loyal And commitment. We all care deeply about the journal, our discipline, and our academic community; however, we find that we can no longer work with Elsevier in good conscience.

The editorial board cited several changes made over the past ten years that it believes conflict with the journal’s long-standing editorial principles. This included eliminating support for a copy editor and special issues editor, leaving it to the editorial staff to handle these duties. When the board expressed the need for a copy editor, they said Elsevier’s response was “to emphasize that editors should not be concerned with language, grammar, readability, consistency, accuracy of labels, or proper formatting.”

There is also a major restructuring of the editorial board underway that aims to reduce the number of associate editors by more than half, which “will reduce the number of approved editors dealing with a much larger number of papers, and on topics outside their area of ​​expertise.”

Furthermore, there are plans to create a third-level editorial board that will operate largely as a figurehead, after Elsevier “unilaterally took complete control” of the board structure in 2023 by requiring all co-editors to renew their contracts annually – which The Board of Directors believes it undermines its editorial independence and integrity.

Worst practices

Internal or outsourced production was reduced, and in 2023 Elsevier began using artificial intelligence during production without informing the Board of Directors, resulting in numerous errors in style and format as well as reversing versions of papers that had already been accepted and formatted by the editors. “This was extremely embarrassing for the journal and the decision took six months and was only reached through the sustained efforts of the editors,” the editors wrote. “AI processing continues to be used and submitted manuscripts are regularly reformatted to change meaning and format and require extensive author and editor supervision during the proof stage.”

In addition, JHE’s author page fees are much higher than even other for-profit Elsevier journals, as well as broad-based open access journals such as Scientific Reports. The editors wrote that many of the journal’s authors cannot afford these fees, “which is inconsistent with the journal’s (and Elsevier’s) pledge to equality and inclusion.”

The breaking point appeared to come in November, when Elsevier informed co-editors Mark Grabowski (Liverpool John Morris University) and Andrea Taylor (Touro University College of Osteopathic Medicine, California) that it would end the dual-editor model that had been in place since 1986. When Grabucki and Taylor protested, they were told They said the model could only survive if they received a 50 percent cut of their compensation.