Leading ML researchers issue statement of support for JMLR | October 08, 2001 | letter of resignation from Machine Learning journal

"From: Michael Jordan [mailto:jordan@CS.Berkeley.EDU]

Sent: Monday, October 08, 2001 5:33 PM

Subject: letter of resignation from Machine Learning journal

Dear colleagues in machine learning,

The forty people whose names appear below have resigned from the Editorial Board of the Machine Learning Journal (MLJ). We would like to make our resignations public, to explain the rationale for our action, and to indicate some of the implications that we see for members of the machine learning community worldwide.

The machine learning community has come of age during a period of enormous change in the way that research publications are circulated. Fifteen years ago research papers did not circulate easily, and as with other research communities we were fortunate that a viable commercial publishing model was in place so that the fledgling MLJ could begin to circulate. The needs of the community, principally those of seeing our published papers circulate as widely and rapidly as possible, and the business model of commercial publishers were in harmony.

Times have changed. Articles now circulate easily via the Internet, but unfortunately MLJ publications are under restricted access. Universities and research centers can pay a yearly fee of $1050 US to obtain unrestricted access to MLJ articles (and individuals can pay $120 US). While these fees provide access for institutions and individuals who can afford them, we feel that they also have the effect of limiting contact between the current machine learning community and the potentially much larger community of researchers worldwide whose participation in our field should be the fruit of the modern Internet.

None of the revenue stream from the journal makes its way back to authors, and in this context authors should expect a particularly favorable return on their intellectual contribution---they should expect a service that maximizes the distribution of their work. We see little benefit accruing to our community from a mechanism that ensures revenue for a third party by restricting the communication channel between authors and readers.

In the spring of 2000, a new journal, the Journal of Machine Learning Research (JMLR), was created, based on a new vision of the journal publication process in which the editorial board and authors retain significant control over the journal's content and distribution. Articles published in JMLR are available freely, without limits and without conditions, at the journal's website, http://www.jmlr.org. The content and format of the website are entirely controlled by the editorial board, which also serves its traditional function of ensuring rigorous peer review of journal articles. Finally, the journal is also published in a hardcopy version by MIT Press...."