From: ANTHONY WATKINSON <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Mon, 7 Jan 2019 07:13:01 +0000

As is often pointed out many major journals are published for or by
learned societies. Surely their practices can be determined by looking
at the posted accounts? Perhaps a retired person like Jean-Claude can
do or manage such an investigation.

Anthony


----Original message----
From: "Jean-Claude Guédon" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Sun, 6 Jan 2019 16:51:24 -0500

The issue of editor compensations (or whatever they may be called) has
long been a point of high interest that still remains obscure. It is
of high interest because it lies exactly at the intersection of the
financial and the intellectual dimensions of scientific publishing. it
is part of the "entanglement" issue raised by Aileen Fyfe and her
colleagues (https://zenodo.org/record/546100#.WhSeiWMW38t).

In an example I heard years ago, the compensation was so much per
peer-reviewed article.  Information is much needed on this point.
Opacity does not agree easily with appeals to market rules.

Jean-Claude Guédon


Le dimanche 06 janvier 2019 à 16:25 -0500, LIBLICENSE a écrit :
From: leo waaijers <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Sun, 6 Jan 2019 22:09:28 +0100

Dear Anthony,

No, I have no special evidence. I simply referred to an article I
thought might be interesting to the list. And yes, I know the
journalist well enough (1) to believe him when he says that he has his
information ‘on good authority’, and (2) to know that he will not
share his source with me.

In the meantime, your information about editors receiving substantial
payments triggered a question. Where would the loyalty of these
editors go in the sometimes heated debate between research funders and
publishers about OA or Plan S?

Leo


From: Anthony Watkinson <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2019 09:36:35 +0000

I have no idea where the information about Elsevier policies have come
from but there is one assertion in this curious report that is so
incorrect that I want to counter it. I have run journals for parts or
all of the lists of four major companies over forty years. I have
never published a journal the editor of which received no payment.
Sometimes in the medical world the amounts were substantial.

I know what I am talking about. I wrote the contracts. Sometimes but
rarely the payment (at the editor’s request) was described as expenses
- drawn upon for air fares - but usually they were clearly
differentiated from expenses incurred in editing the journal and quite
often the costs of a journal office (the editor’s assistant etc) were
also likewise subject to a separate clause.

Now I have never worked for Elsevier. Maybe Leo has special evidence.
Please disclose this.

Anthony
________________________________

From: leo waaijers <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wed, 2 Jan 2019 19:11:00 +0100

For those who think that Elsevier, positioning itself as an
information analytics company, might be less interested in individual
journals the following article might be revealing.

https://www.scienceguide.nl/2018/12/elsevier-willing-to-compensate-editors-to-prevent-them-from-flipping/

Leo Waaijers