BRI petition

Dear Colleagues, Your support and solidarity has been amazing. Over 870 people signed the petition in order to make their views know to Taylor and Francis. Thank you so very much. The petition has been sent to T&F, but their actions - particularly any consultation or engagement with feedback - has shown that they are not to be interested in the community that they serve. These events signal the end of an era. It is much more than my departure from BRI: it is a significant and unwelcome change in corporate culture and procedures. Hundreds of people in our community have expressed deep concerns about what this means for the continuation of editorial independence and editorial quality. A good publisher must not jeopardize the goodwill of our readers, reviewers, authors and endorsing organizations. Apparently, this has been happening at other T&F journals as well. Several editors have contacted me about how they were unreasonably dismissed. This raises concerns over whether the needs of our community are adequately served by publishers and whether their governance is robust and appropriate. If not, then we must endeavour to create new models for publishing and dissemination. I have written an editorial "End of an Era" that will be published in the next issue of the journal. This provides some reflections as well as thoughts on journal governance and practices. It should be available online in a few weeks. https://doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2018.1454001 Further news and updates will be posted on the BRI Community blog: www.bricommunity.net Again, my heartfelt thanks for your support and concern about the future of BRI and academic publishing. Kind regards, Richard Lorch richard@rlorch.net