Introduction

Ludo Waltman is professor of quantitative science studies and deputy director at the Center for Science and Technology at Lyduniversity. He is also the editor in chief of quantitative science Studies, a new journal published by the MIT Press. The two had severe disagreements with Elsevier on a number of issues such as open access publishing or references. At that point, we decided to explore the possibility for launching a new journal owned by the scientific community and published by a different publisher.