Senate delays vote on journal resolution

After much discussion, the Faculty Senate last week delayed a vote on a proposal that would have encouraged faculty to avoid publishing or reviewing articles in journals of for-profit publishing companies that engage in exorbitant pricing practices.

The resolution will return to the senate later this year following further consultation within the university.

University Librarian Michael Keller had urged faculty to approve the resolution and join other universities such as the University of California, Harvard, Cornell and Duke in publicly condemning what the Committee on Libraries characterized as disproportionate price hikes for many journals and publications and the practice of bundling important publications with nonessential works to get universities to pay higher fees.

The senate proposal encouraged libraries to refuse bundled subscription plans and drop journals that are "unconscionably or disproportionately expensive or inflationary." The proposal noted that special attention should be paid to journals published by Elsevier, a leading publisher in the industry that has been criticized for its pricing tactics.

The proposal also encouraged faculty, especially senior faculty, to refrain from submitting articles to or editing work for publishers and journals that engage in such pricing practices.

In other business, the senate approved a change to the Research Policy Handbook that helped clarify the eligibility for non-principal investigator roles and for principal investigator exceptions.

Provost John Etchemendy also announced that Robert Joss, dean of the Graduate School of Business, and Jim Plummer, dean of the School of Engineering, both had been re-appointed to five-year terms as deans of their respective schools.