Elsevier guts editorial boards of GEB and JET; economists say commercial publishers have no moat
joshgans · x · 2026-08-21
Economist Joshua Gans (University of Toronto) reports that Elsevier has, for unclear reasons, gutted the editorial board of Games and Economic Behavior (GEB), with the Journal of Economic Theory (JET) rumored to face the same treatment.
Gans argues this is an opportunity in the AI era: commercial publishers' main remaining asset is their back catalogue, which will likely be licensed to AI in some form. For new content, he says the existing journal system is clearly outdated and academia can do better — including relying on scholarly associations to run editorial-board selection and oversight.
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