CPHN

Resignation of Critical Public Health Editorial Board members 

We, the undersigned members of the Critical Public Health Editorial Board, hereby resign with immediate effect.

We recognise that the support of Taylor & Francis has enabled the journal to grow, and for our authors to reach a wider readership. The editorial team are also grateful for the personal support of many Taylor & Francis staff over the years, particularly […]. 

Members of the Editorial Board provide unpaid labour to maintain Critical Public Health as a platform for critical scholarship. We do this as service to the larger critical public health academic and practitioner community, and with respect for the collective input of colleagues who founded and published our predecessor, Radical Community Medicine. 

As a 2021 editorial in CPH noted, we believe that a journal can be “both a brand, with a value indicated by the impact factor and the level of income it can generate for a corporate publisher [and] the home of a community of scholars”. However, over the last year or so, it has become increasingly difficult to hold together these two different versions of the journal as Taylor & Francis seek to increase standardisation and efficiency across their titles. 

The new contract and amendment issued to the editors make clear the limited role the publisher sees for the editorial team and board. In reiterating the rights of the publisher to determine the funding model and volume of articles that will be published, we believe Taylor & Francis have significantly eroded our ability to set strategic direction. The editorial team’s ability to manage a collegial and bespoke response to authors and reviewers has also been systematically undermined by changes (typically without any consultation) to the submission platform, information about the journal, and requirements for manuscripts, and outsourcing key functions such as pre-production. The only model offered for ensuring authors can publish open access has been Article Processing Charges (APCs), currently £2700 per research article: an unsustainable cost for research funders and university libraries in high income countries, and an impossible cost for many in less advantaged countries; occasional subsidies do not constitute a viable solution to the much deeper issues of inequity embedded within the profit orientation. 

Despite efforts to reconcile our differences and work effectively together with Taylor & Francis, we now find ourselves unable to maintain the particular niche we have developed for the CPH community. Our resignation responds to our commitment to upholding the values we hold dear in serving our academic and practitioner community. 

Judith Green Lindsay McLaren CPH Co-Editors 

On behalf of the following CPH Editorial Board members: 

Prof Waqar Ahmad, ex-Abu Dhabi University, Abu Dhabi
Prof Emma Louise Anderson, University College London, UK
Dr Tamar Antin, Center for Critical Public Health, USA
Prof David Armstrong, King’s College London, UK
Dr Amy Barnes, University of York, UK
Prof Fran Baum, University of Adelaide, AUS
Prof Kirsten Bell, King’s College London, UK
Prof Robin Bunton, Hull York Medical School, UK
Dr Simon Carter, Open University, UK
Prof Claudia Chaufan, York University, CA
Prof Simon Cohn, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UK
Prof Christopher Colvin, University of Cape Town, SA
Dr Sara Cooper, South African Medical Research Council, SA
Prof John Coveney, Flinders University, AUS
Dr Gwenetta Curry, University of Edinburgh, UK
Prof George Davey Smith, University of Bristol, UK
Prof Kevin Dew, University of Wellington, NZ
Prof Andrew Dickson, ex-Massey University, NZ
Dr Jenny Douglas, Open University, UK
Prof Daniel Goldberg, University of Colorado, USA
Prof Judith Green, University of Exeter, UK
Prof Rebecca Haines-Saah, University of Calgary, CA
Prof Stephani Hatch, King’s College London, UK
Prof Lesley Henderson, University of Strathclyde, UK
Prof Morten Hulvej Rod, University of Southern Denmark, DEN
Prof Mike Kelly, University of Cambridge, UK
Prof Ronald Labonté – University of Ottawa, CA
Prof Lindsay McLaren, University of Calgary, CA
Dr Cristian Montenegro, University of Exeter, UK & Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, Chile 

Dr Catherine Montgomery, University of Edinburgh, UK
Dr Oliver Mweemba, University of Zambia, Zambia
Prof Eric Mykhalovskiy, York University, CA
Dr Lois Orton, University of Sheffield, UK
Prof Richard Parker, Columbia University, USA
Prof Alan Petersen, Monash University, AUS
Prof Aaron Reeves, Oxford University, UK
Prof Susan Shaw, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, USA
Prof Janet Shim, University of California, USA
Prof Dan Skinner, Ohio University, USA
Prof Ewen Speed, University of Essex, UK
Prof Jane Springett, University of Alberta, CA
Prof Katerini Storeng, University of Oslo, Norway
Prof Paul Ward, Torrens University, AUS
Dr Oli Williams, King’s College London, UK 

5th July 2023