Emerald and Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal

Posted by GIOVANNA MICHELON - Nov 07, 2024
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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

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