Subject: ... yet another statement ... From: Andrew Ranicki Date: Sat, 18 Aug 2007 14:41:38 +0100 The resignation of the editors of "K-theory" in January 2007 by Andrew Ranicki On 29th January 2007 the managing editor of "K-theory" Tony Bak circulated an e-mail to all the editors asking us to resign, and included a suggested form of words. The reasons for the resignation were to be dissatisfaction with the technical aspects of the publication of the journal, and the high price of the journal. The problems with the publication did not seem to me sufficiently major to warrant such a mass resignation, especially as Catriona Byrne of Springer had written to the editors on 17th January 2007 carefully explaining the Springer side. She stated that the technical problems would be resolved by transferring the production of the journal to Heidelberg, but the problem was that the managing editor had not passed on any papers to Springer since April 2006 -- see my statements with Wolfgang Lueck for some further details: http//www.maths.ed.ac.uk/~aar/editor/state1.txt and http//www.maths.ed.ac.uk/~aar/editor/state2.txt The journal price had never been discussed by the editors collectively. (I was told later that it was not an issue raised by Tony Bak with Springer.) So I found the suggested form of words in the proposed resignation letter > I assume you continue being dissatisfied with the price Springer > charges for K-Theory. distinctly odd. I resigned on 30th January, having first made sure that the one paper I was handling for K-theory was taken care of, only writing to Tony Bak that: > I am writing to inform you that I am resigning my position as an > editor of the journal K-theory, effective immediately. In an addendum to the actual letter of resignation I wrote >As it happens, I was never particularly dissatisfied with the price >Springer charges for K-theory. Since practically all interesting work is >available on the internet and there are so many journals anyway, the >price of journals is not such a big issue for me. Tuition fees, the >interest of students in mathematics, and workloads/salaries of >professors are much bigger issues! The received dates business >seemed a minor (if annoying) technical problem: the submission date to >the arxive is a much better way of establishing priority for those that >care about such things. Tony Bak's email of 29 January 2007 concluded with >Please keep the matter strictly confidential, till Springer is notified. >I shall let you know when this is. In retrospect, I should not have gone along with this, and should have sent a copy of my resignation letter to Springer at the time. When Tony Bak circulated the announcement of the founding of the new "Journal of K-theory" on 27th July 2007, I had learnt my lesson, and immediately replied with a copy to all the editors and to Springer >Dear Tony >Thank you for the announcement of the new "Journal of K-theory", >and the invitation to join the editorial board. >However, for a variety of reasons, I cannot accept this invitation. >Best regards >Andrew > >PS I am copying this message to Joachim Heinze of Springer. At the time, none of the editorial board expressed an interest in my reasons. They know the reasons now. 18th August, 2007