The last time I wrote about the open access movement, I reported that the University of California had refused to renew its Elsevier subscriptions and that the next logical step was for individual researchers to refuse to publish in Elsevier journals. I haven’t seen news of more researchers refusing to publish in those journals but in a related move 31 UC researchers who are editorial board members of Elsevier’s Cell Press imprint, which publishes Cell and other journals devoted to cell biology, have told Elsevier that they’re withholding editorial services until the dispute is resolved.
This is significant because these are obviously people who believe in and support the journals. If they’re willing to join a boycott of Cell Press’s publications, think how much easier it would be for others in the field. Cell in particular is a top-notch journal and there’s a lot of prestige in being published by them. That will translate, I’m sure, into reluctance on the part of researchers to forego the opportunity but the growing trend among senior researchers to wash their hands of Elsevier and its journals might hasten such a boycott.
It’s probably still a little too early to tell what will happen and the situation is certainly ripe for an application of the law of unintended consequences but it feels if something is going to change. Perhaps we will, at long last, see the end of closed publishing and pay walls. Science and the world will be better off for it.