press release for Journal of Algebraic Combinatorics (2017-07-27) | Press – MathOA

"...press release for Journal of Algebraic Combinatorics (2017-07-27):

At the end of June 2017, the four editors-in-chief of the Journal of Algebraic Combinatorics informed Springer that they will not renew their contracts, which terminate on 31 December 2017. Nearly all of the editorial board members will also resign, to form the editorial board of a new journal that will be called Algebraic Combinatorics, run according to Fair Open Access Principles. The new journal Algebraic Combinatorics will be up and running very shortly, with interim editors-in-chief Satoshi Murai and Vic Reiner. The transition to Fair Open Access is supported by the organisation Mathematics in Open Access (MathOA). The editors of the Journal of Algebraic Combinatorics are Akihiro Munemasa, Christos Athanasiadis, Hugh Thomas and Hendrik van Maldeghem. Once their contracts with Springer expire, they will become editors-in-chief at Algebraic Combinatorics. Why now? ‘There wasn’t a particular crisis. It has been becoming more and more clear that commercial journal publishers are charging high subscription fees and high Article Processing Charges (APCs), profiting from the volunteer labour of the academic community, and adding little value. It is getting easier and easier to automate the things that they once took care of. The actual printing and distribution of paper copies is also much less important than it has been in the past; this is something which we have decided we can do without’, says Hugh Thomas. ‘We were inspired by the Linguistics in Open Access (LingOA) project that flipped 4 journals in linguistics last year. We therefore also started a foundation Mathematics in Open Access (MathOA), that will help other journals in mathematics flip to Fair Open Access’ says Mark Wilson, one of the founding members of MathOA...."