Today, the International Society for Scientometrics and Informetrics (ISSI) announces the launch of the new journal Quantitative Science Studies (QSS), published by MIT Press. The editorial board of QSS consists of the members of the former editorial board of Journal of Informetrics (JOI), an Elsevier journal. The members of the editorial board of JOI, which include CWTS researchers Nees Jan van Eck, Anthony van Raan, and Paul Wouters, have unanimously resigned and have moved to QSS. An important reason for the resignation is Elsevier’s lack of support for the Initiative for Open Citations (I4OC). Disagreements about journal ownership and open access policies have played a role as well.
Ludo Waltman, Deputy Director of CWTS and Editor-in-Chief of JOI, comments on the resignation of the editorial board: “In many ways, the collaboration between Elsevier and the scientometric community, starting with the launch of JOI in 2007, has been a successful one. Thanks to the efforts made by both parties, JOI has become a prestigious journal that for many scientometricians is the preferred venue to publish their work. However, during the past two years, it has become clear that Elsevier and the editorial board of JOI, including myself, have fundamentally different perspectives on a number of key issues. Especially Elsevier’s refusal to make the references of articles published in JOI openly available has caused a lot of dissatisfaction in the editorial board.”
While the former JOI editorial board members are no longer listed on the website of JOI, Waltman is still presented as Editor-in-Chief of the journal. Waltman: “As Editor-in-Chief of JOI, I have a formal contract with Elsevier. I am currently discussing the cancellation of this contract. I want to emphasize that Elsevier and the former editorial board members of JOI agree that manuscripts currently under submission at JOI should not suffer from the resignation of the editorial board. I will therefore remain active as Editor-in-Chief of JOI for a few more months to take editorial responsibility for these manuscripts. The former JOI editorial board members have promised to remain available to support the peer review process of these manuscripts. New submissions to the journal will not be handled anymore by me and by the former editorial board members.”
Sarah de Rijcke, Director of CWTS, is excited about the launch of QSS: “This is a major step for the field of quantitative science studies. I congratulate ISSI and the editorial board of QSS on the launch of their new journal. I am proud to see the essential role played by CWTS in this development.” De Rijcke emphasizes that CWTS hopes to continue successful collaborations with Elsevier in other areas: “But given Elsevier’s lack of support for open citations, carrying out editorial tasks for Elsevier journals has become increasingly problematic for us.”
Further reading
Blog post by Vincent Larivière (Interim Editor, QSS)
Blog post by Marco Tullney (Technische Informationsbibliothek, TIB)