Subject: categories: Resignation

From: "Dr. P.T. Johnstone" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 14 Jan 2001 17:32:48 +0000 (GMT)

Dear Colleagues,

This message is to let the categorical community know that I have decided to
resign from the Editorial Board of the Journal of Pure and Applied Algebra.
I shall (eventually) deal with all papers submitted to me as editor before the
end of 2000 (some of which have been subject to quite shameful delays -- see
below), but I shall not handle any further papers. The following is an edited
version of my letter of resignation, sent to the Managing Editors.

"The primary reason for resigning is that it has become increasingly clear to
me that I simply can't hope to find time for the volume of editorial work that
comes my way, on top of my teaching and administrative commitments, and still
have any time at all for my own research. Indeed, for some months now I have
been unable to deal with editorial work at all, because the sheer volume of
things awaiting my attention sent me into a depressed state every time I tried
to tackle them.

"The problem was compounded by the pressures of moving to our new building
(after 24 years in the same office) in September, which meant that all my
files had to be packed up some weeks beforehand; some of the JPAA material
went missing in the move, and I still haven't got myself fully straightened
out. But that isn't the root cause of the problem; it had started before then.

"I think a more significant cause is the fact that I no longer believe in the
value of the job that I'm doing as an editor of JPAA: I am very uncertain
about the role of print journals, particularly commercial ones, in the 21st
century. Why people still want to submit their papers to JPAA, rather than to
an electronic journal such as "Theory and Applications of Categories" (of which
I am also, and plan to remain, an editor), is something I don't understand.
(And yes, I know that Elsevier will say that they are moving with the times in
making their journals available in electronic form, but in fact their pricing
policy for electronic access, which is such that even Cambridge University has
stopped subscribing, reveals them for the dinosaurs that they are -- they
deserve the extinction that will, in my view, soon come upon them. Indeed, I
could rationalize my decision to resign by saying that I was doing so in
protest at Elsevier's pricing policy for electronic access, and that wouldn't
be wholly untrue.)"

I apologize sincerely to all those people whose papers have been held up as a
result of my inaction in recent months; I am determined to sort out the mess
that I've created, if they will bear with me.

Peter Johnstone