The Retraction Watch Mass Resignations List

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In 2023 alone, editors of eight journals on topics ranging from mathematics to biogeography all quit at once because of disputes with their publishing companies. 

Mass resignations of editors from scholarly journals aren’t new – the Open Access Directory has a list of some such actions going back to 1989. But the frequency appears to have picked up in recent years, as well as the attention some mass resignation events draw. 

The following is a list of journals that have seen editors resign en masse since 2015, for various reasons: 

  1. Medical Journal of Australia, Australian Medical Association, 2015, opposition to transferring journal publishing to Elsevier (The Sydney Morning Herald)
  2. Lingua, Elsevier, 2015, subscription fees (The Independent)
  3. Scientific Reports, Springer Nature, 2017, editorial disagreement (Retraction Watch)
  4. Journal of Algebraic Combinatorics, Springer Nature, 2017, subscription and open access fees (Inside Higher Education)
  5. Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis, 2017, editorial disagreement (Inside Higher Education)
  6. International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, Taylor & Francis, 2017, editorial disagreement and interference (Retraction Watch)
  7. Building Research and Information, Taylor & Francis, 2018, not renewing editor in chief’s contract (Retraction Watch)
  8. Diversity & Distributions, Wiley, 2018, open access fees and editorial interference (Retraction Watch)
  9. Nutrients, MDPI, 2018, editorial interference to accept more papers (Science)
  10. Journal of Molecular Medicine, Springer Nature, 2018, office closure with layoffs and new editor in chief (Retraction Watch)
  11. Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, 2019, open access policies and fees (Nature)
  12. European Law Journal, Wiley, 2020, editorial control and contracts (Retraction Watch)
  13. Acta Médica Peruana, Medical Association of Peru, 2021, editorial interference (El Foco)
  14. Molecular Genetics & Genomic Medicine, Wiley, 2021, editorial disagreement (The Intercept)
  15. Aging Cell, Wiley and the Anatomical Society, 2022, workload and compensation (Retraction Watch)
  16. Indoor Air, Wiley and the International Society of Indoor Air Quality and Climate, 2022, society terminated agreement due to changes in terms (ISIAQ)
  17. Journal of Biogeography, Wiley, 2023, open access policies and fees (Times Higher Education, Retraction Watch)
  18. Kurdish Studies, Ibrahim Sirkeci’s Transnational Press, 2023, takeover by Intellectual Edge Research Publishing (H-Net, editorial in Kurdish Studies Journal)
  19. Critical Public Health, Taylor & Francis, 2023, open access policies and fees (Retraction Watch, editors’ goodbye)
  20. NeuroImage and NeuroImage: Reports, Elsevier, 2023, open access fees (Spectrum)
  21. Design Studies, Elsevier, 2023, replacement of editor in chief, editorial interference to increase output and scope (Times Higher Education)
  22. Journal of Geometric Mechanics, American Institute of Mathematical Sciences (AIMS), 2023, switch to open access and editorial interference to increase output and special issues (Retraction Watch)
  23. Publications, MDPI, 2023, company’s “predatory publishing practices” (Times Higher Education)
  24. eLife, independent, 2023, institution of “no-reject” publishing model, firing of editor in chief (Nature)
  25. Journal of International Students, independent, 2023, transition to new management with open access fees (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
  26. The Journal of Political Philosophy, Wiley, 2023, dispute over publication volume that led to editor in chief being fired (Daily Nous)
  27. Sustainable Organisations section of Frontiers in Sustainability, Frontiers, 2023, pressure on and treatment of reviewers (2022 complaint letter to Frontiers; May 2023 resignation letter of 31 editors)
  28. Econometrics, MDPI, 2023, editors and publisher “were unable to agree on an overarching strategy for the development of this journal” (MDPI announcement)
  29. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, Wiley, 2023, editorial board resignations after editors in chiefs’ contracts were not renewed (editor in chiefs’ letter)
  30. Theory and Society, Springer Nature, 2024, replacement of editor in chief against editorial board’s wishes (Retraction Watch); new journal Theory and Social Inquiry announced
  31. Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley, 2024, objections to proposed volume growth (Retraction Watch)
  32. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, Springer Nature, 2024, objections to journal’s failure to handle allegations (Retraction Watch)
  33. Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley, 2024, protest of “an ‘anti-woke’ drive against radical views in the pursuit of profits” (Financial Times; Times Higher Education; resignation letter)
  34. Syntax, Wiley, 2024, “to protest changes imposed unilaterally by the journal’s publisher” (Open Access Linguistics)
  35. Philosophy & Public Affairs, Wiley, 2024, because “scholarly journals—including our own—serve important purposes, and that these purposes are not well-served by commercial publishing” (Daily Nous)

We’ll update this list with any new cases.

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