California Scientists Pull Support for Elsevier Journals

Thirty academics from the University of California system have said they will no longer provide editorial services to publisher Elsevier’s highly influential Cell Press journals.

In a letter published Aug. 7, the scientists said they would not resume their roles on the editorial boards of the Elsevier journals until a new “big deal” is reached between the university system and the publisher.

Among the signatories of the letter are Jennifer Doudna, co-inventor of the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technology, and Elizabeth Backburn, co-recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Negotiations to draw up a new journal subscription deal between Elsevier and the UC system broke down in early 2019.

The UC system had been seeking a new kind of subscription deal that would reduce the $10-million-a-year cost and incorporate fees for academics to publish open-access articles.

Academics and students in the UC system lost instant access to the latest Elsevier research in July.