The editorial board of a leading Elsevier neuroscience journal have resigned after the publisher hiked its open-access fees to $3,450 (£2,776).
In an open letter published on 17 April, more than 40 editors of NeuroImage and its companion journal NeuroImage: Reports announced that they had quit over the “high publication fee” charged by the open-access title and would be starting a new non-profit journal, Imaging Neuroscience.
“NeuroImage’s editorial team has tried to convince Elsevier to reduce the publication fee from $3,450, as we believe large profit is unethical and unsustainable,” said the statement, which came after the decision to raise NeuroImage’s article-processing charge from $3,000.
The letter explained how editors had formally requested last year that NeuroImage’s article-processing charge (APC) should be reduced to below $2,000. Direct article costs at comparable journals were estimated to be about $1,000, it added, saying editors had warned Elsevier last month that they would quit unless a price reduction was made.
