Ouverture de “Management Science in Transition: Challenges for Global Research”

This Issue of Symphonya.Emerging Issue in Management arises from the needs and concerns expressed by a growing number of researchers, especially young people in the early stages of their academic careers, of not being able to publish their scientific works due to the high costs required by the largest international publishers. In the eighties, with the massive help of electronic publishing, large commercial publishing houses have increased their control of the science system. The proportion of the scientific output published in journals under their ownership has risen steadily over the past 40 years. Where is the business research system going to? So, how to proceed now? Journals taking large fees without providing robust editorial or publishing services has created what some have called an age of academic racketeering. How can we return to the centrality of the science of management, without the commercial and profit conditioning created by the biggest publishers? First of all, it is now essential that the American and European Antitrust Authorities activate antimonopoly measures on an international scale. However, anti-cartel measures are not sufficient. Without any doubt, in order to ensure a robust progress of the science of management, and more generally of the sciences and of humanity as a whole, scientific research must return to a centrality of universities and research centers, with the predominance of researchers affiliated to international schools of thought and with autonomous and authoritative journals.