The rumours are true: the editors which in 2007 resigned from the journal K-Theory have now resigned from the splinter journal they helped set up, Journal of K-Theory, to start a third journal, Annals of K-Theory. What a headache!
The Journal of K-Theory was founded in 2007 after the chief editor of the journal K-Theory, Anthony Bak, fell out with its publishers, Springer, ostensibly over high subscription charges and other “publishing problems”. Bak took a significant number of the editors of the old journal with him to the new journal, which was owned by him but supposed to be transferred to a non-profit foundation later on.
Now, a few years later, the editorial board of Journal of K-Theory has resigned en masse (apart from one person), fed up with the fact that the journal still belongs exclusively to Professor Bak, and shocked by the high profits made by the journal – the original promise was that profits would be ploughed back into supporting research, but they seem to be stuck in Anthony Bak’s company, ISOPP.
The former editors allege that since they stopped accepting new papers for Journal of K-Theory, Bak has started accepting them of his own accord and without proper review. The editors have called for the journal’s publisher, Cambridge University Press, to cancel it entirely so that Bak can’t continue benefiting from the name’s good reputation.
The K-Theory Foundation, Inc., the non-profit corporation which was supposed to receive ownership of the Journal of K-Theory, is going to launch a third journal called Annals of K-Theory, which should do all the things the second journal was supposed to, for definite realsies this time. The new journal is accepting submissions ahead of a 2015 launch.
More information
Editorial board of “Journal of K-Theory” on strike, demanding Tony Bak hands over the journal to the K-Theory foundation – post from September 2014 at the Secret Blogging Seminar
End of the Journal of K-Theory – open letter from the editors explaining the situation
Journal of K-Theory at Cambridge University Press
K-Theory page at Eureka Journal Watch (the original Springer journal)
via David Roberts on Google+
2016 launch…