A second, distinct wave
In a previous piece, CASRAI covered three 2026 editorial-board mass resignations: Journal of Approximation Theory (Elsevier), Statistics and Computing (Springer Nature), and Communications in Algebra (Taylor & Francis). Since that piece, three more, entirely distinct incidents have followed the same pattern at journals from the same three major commercial publishers: Natural Language Semantics (Springer Nature), Communications on Pure and Applied Mathematics (Wiley, via the Courant Institute at NYU), and Review of Social Economy (Taylor & Francis). As with the first piece, this one lays out what happened at each journal in the editors’ and publishers’ own documented terms, without taking a side.
Natural Language Semantics (Springer Nature): a volume ultimatum
In early April 2026, editor-in-chief Amy Rose Deal (University of California, Berkeley) and two associate editors of Natural Language Semantics, published by Springer Nature, resigned, after consulting the journal’s 25-member editorial board, which gave what Retraction Watch’s June 5, 2026 report describes as “a very high level of support” for the move. The editors said Springer Nature had told them to increase the journal’s annual publication volume by roughly 25% or have it merged into another Springer-owned title; Natural Language Semantics had averaged about 12 articles a year over the prior decade. On May 19, 2026, the resigning editors, together with the journal’s founding co-editors, announced a new venue, Semantics of Natural Languages, published by the Open Library of Humanities (a fully diamond open access publisher) with a board made up of nearly all the former Natural Language Semantics editors. Springer Nature separately confirmed Natural Language Semantics itself will cease operating at the end of 2026, and has been directing authors to submit instead to Linguistics and Philosophy.
Communications on Pure and Applied Mathematics (Wiley): a coordinated non-renewal
This case is structured differently from the other two and is worth describing precisely. The editorial board of Communications on Pure and Applied Mathematics — a journal owned by the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University and published by Wiley for more than 75 years — did not resign mid-contract. Instead, the board notified Wiley in January 2026 that it would not renew the publishing agreement when it expires at the end of 2026, and the full board, led by editor-in-chief Sylvia Serfaty (NYU), is moving intact to a new, Courant-owned title, the Courant Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics, to be published by the independent, not-for-profit Mathematical Sciences Publishers. Retraction Watch’s June 30, 2026 report quotes board member Scott Armstrong describing a pattern of Wiley “forcing unilateral decisions,” including a requirement to switch to editorial-management software the board considered inferior to the system already in use, and objections to Wiley-mandated formatting changes and to the journal’s cost (a reported $5,490 open-access fee and subscription pricing up to $10,000, which the board characterized as Wiley’s most expensive mathematics journal). Courant announced the transition publicly on May 29, 2026; the new journal is expected to begin accepting submissions in 2026 with an initial issue targeted for early 2027.
Review of Social Economy (Taylor & Francis): a contract-renewal dispute
In July 2026, 41 editors, associate editors, and advisory board members of Review of Social Economy resigned: four co-editors on July 4 and 37 associate editors and advisory-board members on July 10, according to Retraction Watch’s July 23, 2026 report. The journal is owned by the Association for Social Economics (ASE), which had renewed its publishing contract with Taylor & Francis; the departing editors opposed the renewal, saying they wanted the journal to move to a fully open-access model and feared the publisher would eventually shift it to one funded entirely by author-paid publishing fees. The editors said they had already been spending a significant share of the journal’s editorial budget “buying out” articles from behind the paywall, particularly for early-career scholars and scholars from non-OECD countries, and that Taylor & Francis had declined a request for a fee discount or waiver for authors from Africa. ASE has said the journal will remain hybrid “for the immediate future” and disputes that a full move to author-fee funding was decided; a former editor, Roberto Veneziani, has said Taylor & Francis indicated such a shift was inevitable. The departing editors — a list that includes economists such as Bina Agarwal, Pranab Bardhan, William Darity Jr., Marc Fleurbaey, Nancy Folbre, Jayati Ghosh, Mark Granovetter, John Roemer, Debra Satz, Juliet Schor, and Joan Tronto — plan to launch a new title, the Journal of Social Economy and Philosophy, through Stanford University Press’s Subscribe to Open program, a diamond open access model with no charge to either authors or readers.
Part of the same documented pattern
Retraction Watch’s Mass Resignations List logged the Review of Social Economy departure as its 56th documented case overall and the seventh in 2026 alone. The three cases above extend, rather than depart from, the pattern already described in CASRAI’s first-wave piece: publisher-imposed changes to APC or open-access policy, reduced editorial autonomy over process and tooling, and unilateral decisions made without board consultation continue to be the recurring triggers. Two of the three cases here (Natural Language Semantics, Review of Social Economy) are formal en-masse resignations followed by a new-journal launch at an open-access or diamond open-access publisher; the third (Communications on Pure and Applied Mathematics) is a coordinated, pre-planned non-renewal rather than a resignation in the strict sense, but shares the same underlying grievance — publisher control over editorial process — and the same outcome, an intact board relocating to a publisher it trusts more.
Why this matters for research administrators and institutions
As with the first wave, these disputes carry practical implications beyond the underlying governance questions. A journal ceasing operations mid-cycle, as with Natural Language Semantics, or transitioning to a new publisher and title, as with the Courant journal, affects any researcher currently under review or citing the outgoing venue in a CV, tenure file, or funder report, and institutions should expect to update preferred-journal or approved-venue lists accordingly. The Review of Social Economy dispute is a useful illustration of how open-access cost structures can become a point of conflict between a scholarly society that owns a journal and the commercial publisher it contracts with, independent of any single editor’s preference — a distinction worth tracking for research offices advising on society-journal relationships. See CASRAI’s guide to editorial board responsibilities for what the editorial role itself normally involves, and the publishing pillar page for the broader landscape these disputes sit within.
What to watch next
Two of the three journals here already have a concrete successor venue and publisher named (Semantics of Natural Languages via the Open Library of Humanities; the Courant Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics via Mathematical Sciences Publishers); the third, the Journal of Social Economy and Philosophy, has a named publisher (Stanford University Press) and funding model (Subscribe to Open) but had not yet published an issue as of Retraction Watch’s July 23, 2026 report. Whether Natural Language Semantics itself formally closes on schedule at the end of 2026, whether Wiley responds publicly to the Courant board’s account, and whether the Association for Social Economics’ hybrid-model assurance for Review of Social Economy holds are all open questions worth following directly via Retraction Watch’s ongoing coverage rather than treating any single report as final.
