THE BANFF PROTOCOL

 

 

 

On August 21, 2005 a group of mathematicians met at the BIRS conference centre to discuss the impact of rapidly increasing mathematics journal prices on our scientific and educational mission. Future research and training of the next generation of mathematicians depends vitally on our unrestricted access through university libraries or archival sites to current and previously published work. 

 

We fully support the traditional refereeing and editorial process of mathematical journals as the best guarantee of quality publication. At the heart of our discussion was simply the desire for publishers to keep their charges and profits at reasonable levels. This resulted in the following protocol.  If you support this protocol please click here*, supply your name and email address, and we will add you to the list of supporters.

 

 

 

 

BANFF PROTOCOL

 

We agree neither to submit to, referee for, nor participate in the operation of any journal that charges an excessively high per page subscription fee, as compared to the average of the 25 highest impact journals in pure mathematics**

 

 

 

 

 

*email: rstern@uci.edu

 

**The 2004 average for the 25 highest impact journal is $0.59 US per page. The Institute for Scientific InformationŐs (ISI) Journal Citation Reports (requires subscription) annually ranks mathematics journals by the number of citations per published page. The 2004 cost-per page for most mathematics journals can be found at http://www.mathematik.uni-bielefeld.de/~rehmann/BIB/AMS/Publisher.html. Click here for the 25 highest impact journals and their 2004 per page subscription fee.

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This Protocol and webpage is maintained by

 

Ian Hambleton, McMaster University

Matthias Kreck, University of Heidelberg

Ronald J. Stern, UC Irvine