Further resignation of an editorial board: Mathematical Logic Quarterly

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There has been an increasing number of resignations by editors of scholarly journals in recent years. In many cases, the editors have criticised the publisher’s excessive influence, especially when the publisher’s presumed goals clash with those of the editors. Today, almost the entire editorial board of yet another journal, MLQ: Mathematical Logic Quarterly, has announced its immediate resignation – and the founding of a new journal on mathematical logic.

From Mathematical Logic Quarterly…

Mathematical Logic Quarterly is published by Wiley as part of a co-operation between Wiley and the learned society Deutsche Vereinigung für Mathematische Logik und für Grundlagenforschung der exakten Wissenschaften. The society has now cancelled this publication agreement as of December 31st, 2025. Two (related) aspects are addressed in their statement.

Firstly, the association states:

„The DVMLG believes that there is a tension between the interests of commercial and profit-oriented publishers and the main purposes of academic publishing; a cooperation of the academic community with a commercial, profit-oriented publisher is only fruitful if the publisher respects the expectations and demands of the academic community.“

At the same time, this tense relationship is seen as a reason why the publisher no longer adequately supports the core mission of the editors:

„The editors and managing editors of MLQ reported that the attitudes and procedures of Wiley have changed considerably in the last few years and that commercial and profit-oriented interests are now influencing the editorial process negatively. On the basis of this changed situation, the members of DVMLG decided not to continue the publishing agreement with Wiley after it ends on 31 December 2025.“

The editors of the journal have, where contractually permissible, terminated their activities without notice. They refer to the perceived conflict of interests:

„The managing editors and editors of MLQ believe that the academic editorial process guaranteeing scientific quality control should be entirely in the hands of an editorial team consisting of members of the academic research community that are entirely free from pressure or influence of commercial and profit-oriented interests. The role of the publisher in the editorial process is to provide the editorial team with an environment that efficiently assists them in their task and conforms to the specifications of the academic research community. We strongly prefer that all research results are freely available around the world (“open science”)
and that neither readers nor authors are charged for the dissemination of research results (“diamond open access”).“

… to ZML: Zeitschrift für Mathematische Logik und Grundlagen der Mathematik

The editors now want to implement these principles with a new journal that was founded at the same time of the walk-out. They have chosen ZML: Zeitschrift für Mathematische Logik und Grundlagen der Mathematik as the title for their new journal. This is a reference to an earlier MLQ name. The new journal is a Diamond Open Access journal that does not charge researchers for reading or publishing. (See also numerous other articles on Diamond Open Access in the TIB blog). In this configuration, the journal also follows the definition used in the EU projects DIAMAS and CRAFT-OA as well as in the new European Diamond Capacity Hub:

„‘Diamond Open Access (OA)’ refers to an equitable model of scholarly publication that charges no fees to authors or readers and in which the content-related elements of publication are owned and controlled by the scholarly communities.“ (siehe https://diamas.org/diamond-open-access)

Publishing the journal is supported by the Cambridge University Library. In terms of content, the journal positions itself as an „English-language Diamond Open Access research journal in mathematical logic publishing original research papers in all areas of mathematical logic“. The Editorial Board consists mainly of researchers from Europe and North America.

Editor walk-outs

With this approach, the editors are following the example of many other editorial boards: resigning from the old location and founding a new journal with the majority of the old board. A prominent early example was the editors of the Elsevier journal Lingua, who jointly founded a new journal Glossa in 2015. The editors of the Springer journal Journal of Algebraic Combinatorics in 2018, whose resignation led to the new journal Algebraic Combinatorics, and the editors of the Elsevier journal Journal of Informetrics in 2019, whose resignation led to the new journal Quantitative Science Studies (QSS), did something similar. All of these journals are no longer published by large commercial publishers, but – under clear academic leadership and responsibility – with the support of less profit-orientated publishing partners. Glossa is now published by the Open Library of Humanities (OLH), Algebraic Combinatorics by the Centre Mersenne, and QSS by MIT Press. The TIB supports OLH, co-finances Algebraic Combinatorics within the framework of OACIP and has strongly supported the founding of QSS.

The Open Access Tracking Project (OATP) now lists more than 200 articles on such resignations or editor walk-outs under the keyword „oa.declarations_of_independence“. Retraction Watch maintains an ongoing overview of these cases. These processes often seem to be preceded by years of disputes about the right course for the respective journal. Without knowing the details of each individual case, it is encouraging that there are now many editorial boards that are committed to ensuring that their own journals are as scholar-led and open as possible. I wish them every success. However, it would also be desirable if publishers were to interpret these signs as an expression of sustained interest on the part of the academic community and position themselves more strongly as partners of such academia-based initiatives.