OF THE EUROPEAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

Editorial board of journal
Topology resigns
The entire editorial board of the prestigious mathematical
journal Topology has announced its resignation in
a letter dated 10 August 2006 addressed to Mr. Robert
Ross of Elsevier Science which is reproduced below. The
Newsletter will ask the publisher to give comments in a
future issue.
We regret to have to tell you that we, the Editorial Board
of Topology, are resigning with effect from 31 December
2006.
As you are well aware, the Editors have been concerned
about the price of Topology since Elsevier gained
control of the journal in 1994. We believe that the price,
in combination with Elsevier’s politics for pricing mathematical
journals more generally, has had a signifi cant
and damaging effect on Topology’s reputation in the
mathematical research community, and that this is likely
to become increasingly serious and diffi cult, indeed impossible,
to reverse in the future.
As you know, we have made efforts over the last
fi ve to ten years to negate this effect. When the alternative
subscription option was introduced a few years ago
(electronic access combined with annual print delivery
for half the price), we were hopeful that it would help
RICAM – ICIAM grants
The Johann Radon Institute for Computational and Applied
Mathematics (RICAM, Linz)
of the Austrian Academy of Sciences announces up to 10
grants which cover the cost of
– a stay of two weeks at RICAM in Linz right before
ICIAM 07, and
– the stay at ICIAM 07 in Zürich.
Travel (as cheap as possible), registration to ICIAM and
accommodation and subsistence in Linz and Zürich are
covered by these grants.
News
in this regard. However, it made little impact, probably
because most university libraries which subscribe to Topology
do so through consortia deals.
The journal Topology has an illustrious history with
which we, on becoming editors, were extremely proud to
be associated. It owed its foundation to the inspiration
and vision of the great Oxford topologist JHC Whitehead
in the late 1950s, and the Honorary Advisory Editorial
Board and also our predecessors on the Editorial
Board have included some of the greatest names of 20th
century mathematics. We believe that the journal’s ethos
and structure, based around a group of editors making
editorial decisions jointly in Oxford with the expert assistance
and advice of highly eminent editors elsewhere
around the world, has many strengths and has provided a
great service to the mathematical community in the past.
However, we feel that Elsevier’s policies towards the
publication of mathematics research have undermined
this legacy.
Therefore, with great reluctance and sadness, we have
made the diffi cult decision to resign.
[signed] Martin Bridson, Ralph Cohen, Nigel Hitchin,
Frances Kirwan, Marc Lackenby, Jean Lannes, Wolfgang
Lück, John Roe and Ulrike Tillmann.
Applications are invited from mathematicians born 1971
or later, who live and work in Central and Eastern Europe
including those EU-Countries that joined the Union
in 2005. Preference is given to applicants whose scientifi c
expertise is close to the fi elds represented at RICAM.
Applications should be sent by September 30, 2006
to radon_iciam@ricam.oeaw.ac.at. These applications
should include a short statement about scientifi c interests
and achievements, a CV and a list of publications.
Also, two letters of support should directly be sent to the
e-mail address given.
Successful candidates will be notifi ed around October 15,
2006 and should then submit an abstract to ICIAM. The
grant will only be awarded if this abstract is accepted for
presentation.
Information:
http://www.ricam.oeaw.ac.at/ , http://www.iciam07.ch/
EMS Newsletter September 2006 13