Mass resignations hit science publisher: Editorial board blames AI and greed

Almost the entire editorial board has resigned from a flagship science journal in human evolution research to protest AI misuse and corporate greed.

In a resignation letter, the editorial board claimed that the Journal of Human Evolution (JHE), owned by the Dutch science publishing company Elsevier, has been systematically eroding the editorial infrastructure, which has been at the core of the journal’s ethos and quality principles.

The letter was publicly shared by Retraction Watch and first covered by a technology news outlet Ars Technica.

According to the editorial board, the journal violated its key principles by removing two editors-in-chief, as well as cutting editors' compensation in half. Elsevier's removal of the copyeditor was another cause of concern for the team, as it affected the quality of the articles.

The JHE journal, which has been published since 1972, has also been blamed for employing AI without consulting with editors. The editors say that AI processing “frequently introduces errors during production that were not present in the accepted manuscript:”

Editors stated in the letter that AI often leaves manuscripts devoid of capitalization of all proper nouns, such as formally recognized epochs, site names, countries, cities, genera, and italics for species.

Nonetheless, copyediting falls to the editors and regularly involves cleaning up issues introduced during production, slowing down the time for acceptance and online publication.

Resignation of the Journal of Human Evolution Editorial Board: We are saddened to announce the resignations of The Joint Editors-in-Chief, all Emeritus Editors retired or active in the field, and all but one Associate Editor. Press release below. pic.twitter.com/j49to7ApDZ

undefined Clément Zanolli (@clementzanolli) December 26, 2024

“AI processing continues to be used and regularly reformats submitted manuscripts to change meaning and formatting and require extensive author and editor oversight during a proof stage,” write editors in the letter.

The situation is causing outrage, as Elsevier charges authors a $3990 processing fee for each submission while outsourcing its production process to low-quality companies. The editors have long raised concerns about the high cost of Open Access (OA), which many authors cannot afford.

Elsevier also plans to establish a third-tier editorial board with a largely symbolic role following its 2023 decision to require associate editors to renew annual contracts. The board sees this move as a threat to its independence and integrity.

It is not the first massive walkout for Elsevier, whose profit margins outstrip Google and Amazon. In 2023, the entire academic board of the journal NeuroImage resigned after Elsevier declined to lower publication fees.

The 40 resigned scientists, comprising professors from Oxford University, King’s College London, and Cardiff University, quoted the science publishing giant's “greed” as the reason.

Elsevier’s response

In an emailed statement, an Elsevier spokesperson told Cybernews that the outgoing editors' claims are not accurate, especially their linking of formatting glitches to the use of AI.

“We do not use AI in our production processes. The journal trialed a production workflow that inadvertently introduced the formatting errors to which the editors refer.”

The spokesperson stated that the journal acted on editors’ feedback and reverted to the journal's previous workflow earlier in 2024.

“We sincerely thank the outgoing editors, the majority of whom were coming to the end of their term at the end of 2024, for their invaluable contributions and dedication to the journal,” read the statement.

Article updated on January 8th with Elsevier's comment.