Monday, September 15, 3 pm Eastern US time
(9 pm Central European Time )
Zoom link:
https://uib.zoom.us/j/68945806343?pwd=hQNpKiezITlIBnQC2T93Vjd0YWkjzt.1
Meeting ID: 689 4580 6343
The challenge at hand:
As the AAA prepares to negotiate its next publishing contract in 2027, it faces the difficult challenge of having to shrink its journal portfolio, which currently consists of more than 20 journals. Wiley/Blackwell is not interested in renewing its current contract unless the AAA shrinks this number significantly. Other publishers also
insist on a portfolio reduction. Thus, this reduction is not a choice but a necessity, which presents both the AAA and individual journals and sections with difficult decisions.
The AAA presented sections and journals with three options:
Option 1: Merge with other AAA journals or join a new AAA-sponsored collaborative journal: AAA asked all journals—except for the powerhouses of American Anthropologist, American Ethnologist, and Current Anthropology—to find collaborative ways to merge, forming 3-5 amalgamated publications.
Option 2 (Verbatim from AAA): “Some sections may find that a library publishing option best suits their publishing goals…. Library publishers are small, mission-driven publishers within academic libraries that offer a limited set of publishing services and typically publish journals on a “diamond” open-access basis: that is, free for both authors and readers.”
Option 3 (Verbatim from AAA): “Sections who wish to remove their journals from the portfolio and not pursue a library collective option may pursue a section-sponsored publishing partnership.”
Our response:
APLA and PoLAR leadership unanimously want to pursue Option 3—another academic publisher—and we already have received significant interest. But this means we must decide to leave the portfolio (and give notice to the AAA) before we have everything in place. At this Town Hall Meeting, we will present our plan to APLA members and friends, and to all who love PoLAR, and address any questions as best we can. We will need your support, now and in the future, for this to work. But we believe that this transition may also be wonderful for the journal and the section.
We hope to see you there!
Heath Cabot (APLA President)
Association for Political and Legal Anthropology 