A journal¡¯s editorial board has withdrawn its threat to resign en masse after its publisher publicly apologised for its handling of a debate on the future of academic publishing.

Earlier this month, Times Higher Education reported that the publication of the debate in the Taylor & Francis journal was delayed by eight months after the publisher demanded large cuts from the ¡°proposition¡± paper.

The paper, ¡°¡±, by four academics from the University of Leicester¡¯s School of Management, was critical of the behaviour and profit margins of commercial publishers, including Taylor & Francis¡¯ parent company, Informa.

Taylor & Francis eventually settled for more minor edits, including the removal of the names of publishers, but the authors and editors were incensed by a long subsequent delay to publication and the addition to each debate paper of a disclaimer warning that ¡°the accuracy of the content should not be relied upon¡±.

ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ

THE¡¯s story about the stand-off went viral on social media and the proposition paper is now the most read paper in the journal¡¯s online history, according to its website.

Stuart Macdonald, Prometheus¡¯ general editor and a visiting professor of economics at Aalto University in Finland, said the attention had helped convince the publisher to submit to his demand for a public apology.

ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ

He has now received a letter from David Green, global journals publishing director at Taylor & Francis Group, which ¨C with the publisher¡¯s knowledge ¨C he passed on to THE. It states that ¡°in our concern to avoid legal and copyright problems, we were overzealous in the changes we sought in the content of the journal¡¯s debate. Publication of the issues was delayed and we failed to communicate clearly with the editors. We apologise for these failings.¡±

It adds: ¡°We accept that there must be a crucial divide between the roles of the academic publisher and the editor, and that this must be maintained. We look forward to re-establishing our previous amicable working relationship with the editors of Prometheus.¡±

Professor Macdonald said it had taken ¡°hours¡± to agree a version of the letter with which he was satisfied and which avoided words the publisher was unwilling to use, such as ¡°sorry¡±, ¡°mistake¡± or ¡°censorship¡±.

¡°But it is extremely rare to get a public apology from a publisher, so this is fine,¡± he said, adding that the editorial board had withdrawn its resignation threat.

ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ

A spokeswoman for Taylor & Francis said the publisher had nothing to add to the letter.

paul.jump@tsleducation.com