Open letter
We are writing this open letter as the Associate Editors, members of the Editorial Board, authors, readers and supporters of Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal (SAMPJ). The Editor, Carol Adams, very recently informed us that the publisher of the journal, Emerald, has made the decision not to reappoint her as Editor because Emerald wishes to take SAMPJ in a new direction. In effect, we believe that this means, in a substantively different direction, thus necessitating the removal of the Editor.
Emerald’s decision was made without consultation with the academic community which supports SAMPJ.
At the outset, we should make clear that Carol is the founding Editor of SAMPJ. The journal was her initiative, she decided on the name, selected the Associate Editors and Editorial Board, successfully navigated the difficult first few months of the new journal and has been a diligent, rigorous and energetic leader of the journal. Under Carol’s editorship, SAMPJ has gone from strength to strength. While there are significant problems in terms of some of the metrics used to rank journals, by these measures, SAMPJ has been an overwhelming success, with a Scopus citescore of 9.5 and a Clarivate Impact Factor of 5.9. In short, Carol’s and SAMPJ’s performance has been outstanding.
It, therefore, came as a huge shock to us to hear that Emerald had decided not to renew Carol’s contract. There was no discussion with us about taking the journal in a new direction, nor was there any decision regarding the appointment of a different editor (or editors). The vast majority of us, associate editors and the editorial board, have made the difficult decision to resign from our posts. We do this reluctantly, not least, because we have all (along with many others) put significant dedication and (unpaid) time into ensuring SAMPJ’s success.
As is the case with the majority of academic journal publishing, the vast amount of academic work in running and populating journals is carried out by academics who are not paid by the publishers. Indeed, academic journals are created, maintained and grown by a collective of unpaid academic labour. We carry out research, read theory, craft our manuscripts, present these manuscripts to our colleagues (who read and comment on them) and after significant care and hard-work submit our manuscripts to journal editors for consideration for publication. The editor then reads our manuscripts, selects anonymous reviewers, and solicits their comments in light of which manuscripts are revised (often many times) before they are actually published. Then, our work is sold to the libraries of the same universities that fund the research and editorial work. The academic publishing field is very profitable. At the very least, we have a claim to being essential creators of the value of academic journals. Yet, Emerald did not give us the opportunity to be consulted on the change to SAMPJ, demonstrating inappropriate governance. Succession planning should be carried out, in consultation with the Editorial team, to ensure a fair and transparent process.
As a consequence of this lack of transparency, we are very concerned that the new Editor(s) will not have been chosen from our community, or that the new Editor(s) will have had little or no prior connection with the Journal. Emerald could have discussed how to move the Journal forward with Carol and editorial team, instead they have decided to define for themselves the new direction of SAMPJ in effect, appropriating the work of those involved in SAMPJ. The academics who have contributed to the success of SAMPJ directly with their research or editorial work and indirectly as taxpayers across the globe who fund our universities have had their inputs seized. Our decision to step back from the Journal is due to our concerns that the new direction of the Journal will not preserve the quality and impact of sustainability accounting, management and policy research.
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Associate Editors:
Subhash Abhayawansa, Swinburne Business School, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia
Michele Andreaus, Università di Trento, Italy
Jennifer Chen, Brigham Young University Hawaii
MassimoContrafatto, University of Sussex (UK)
Céline Louche, University of Waikato, New Zealand
Jim Haslam, Professor of Accounting, Durham University, UK
Luis F. Martinez, Nova School of Business and Economics, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal
Mauricio Gómez-Villegas, Universidad Nacional de Colombia
Mercedes Luque-Vílchez, Universidad de Córdoba, Spain
Andrea Romi, Texas Tech University, US
Hongtao Shen, Jinan University, China
Sujuan Xie, Ocean University of China, China
Teerooven Soobaroyen, Aston University, UK.
Javed Siddiqui, The University of Manchester, UK
Sarah Lauwo, Robert Gordon University
Hwa-Hsien Gary Hsu, Durham University, UK
Javier Husillos, Universidad Pública de Navarra, Spain.
Josie McLaren, Newcastle University, UK
Editorial Advisory Board Members:
Seraina Anagnostopoulou, University of Piraeus, Greece
Claudia Arena, University of Naples Federico II, Italy
Nick Barter, Griffith University, Brisbane
Charles H. Cho, Schulich School of Business, York University
Christine Cooper, University of Edinburgh, UK
Michela Cordazzo, Caꞌ Foscari University of Venice, Italy
Mercy Denedo, Durham University, UK
Colin Dey, University of Dundee
Samanthi Dijkstra-Silva, Dresden University of Technology
Chris (Hristos) Doucouliagos, Deakin University
Matthew Egan, The University of Sydney, Australia
Delphine Gibassier, Former Professor of Accounting for Sustainable Development, Lannion, France
Peiyuan Guo, SynTao Co., People’s Republic of China
Nooch Kuasirikun, University of Manchester, UK
Leanne Keddie, Carleton University, Canada
Eric Lee, Australian Accounting Standards Board
Carlos Larrinaga, Universidad de Burgos, Spain
Michel Magnan, Concordia University, Canada
Jonathan Maurice, Toulouse Capitole University, France
Giovanna Michelon, University of Padova, Italy
Markus Milne, University of Canterbury
Franklin Nakpodia, Durham University
Carlos Noronha, University of Macau
Eduardo Ortas, Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain
Brad Potter, The University of Melbourne
Robin W. Roberts, University of Central Florida
Michelle Rodrigue, Université Laval
Remmer Sassen, TU Dresden, Germany
Stefan Schaltegger, Leuphana University, Lüneburg
Daniela Senkl, University of Guelph, Canada
Roger Simnett, Deakin University
Ian Thomson, University of Dundee
Carol Tilt, University of South Australia
Kanji Tanimoto, Waseda University
Helen Tregidga, Royal Holloway, University of London
Olaf Weber, Schulich School of Business, York University
Eija Vinnari, Tampere University, Finland
