Trumps Boykott vs. Partiell Hyperbolische Attraktoren

Einen kleinen Aufruhr in der mathematischen Welt hat der Verlag Taylor & Francis am vergangenen Freitag mit einer e-Mail an den Teheraner Professor Abbas Fakhari ausgelöst. Dessen mit seinem in Brasilien arbeitenden Landsmann Mohammad Soufi geschriebene Arbeit “Saturation of generalized partially hyperbolic attractors” (hier die ArXiv-Version) war nach zwei Jahren Begutachtung letzten Monat bei “Dynamical Systems” angenommen und dort auch bereits Anfang dieses Monats auf der Webseite online publiziert worden. Am Freitag erhielt Fakhari nun diese Mitteilung des Verlages:

7th December 2018

Dear Dr Abbas Fakhari and Dr Mohammad Soufi,

Ref: 1554029/CDSS-2016-0182.R2 – SATURATION OF GENERALIZED PARTIALLY HYPERBOLIC ATTRACTORS

Thank you for your submission to Dynamical Systems.

As a result of our compliance with laws and regulations applied by the UK, US, European Union, and United Nations jurisdictions with respect to countries subject to trade restrictions, it is not possible for us to publish any manuscript authored by researchers based in a country subject to sanction (in this case Iran) in certain cases where restrictions are applied. Following internal sanctions process checks the above referenced manuscript has been identified as falling into this category. Therefore, due to mandatory compliance and regulation instructions, we regret that we unable to proceed with the processing of your paper.

We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused. Should you wish to submit your work to another publication you are free to do so and we wish you every success.

Yours faithfully,

Justin (Sent on behalf of Dynamical Systems)

Managing Editor | Taylor & Francis | Routledge Journals

Mehr Informationen dazu auf Piece of Mind und Gowers’s Weblog. Die Entscheidung paßt anscheinend in einen allgemeinen Trend, dass iranischstämmige Wissenschaftler bei manchen Konferenzen nicht mehr eingeladen und bei manchen Stipendienentscheidungen benachteiligt werden sollen.

Glücklicherweise blieb das Herausgebergremium hart und schickt am Mittwochmorgen diese Nachricht an den Verlag:

Dear Editorial Staff at Taylor and Francis,

We, the Editorial Board at Dynamical Systems: an International Journal, recently learned that the authors of an article that had already beenaccepted at DS:aIJ, Drs Fakhari and Soufi, received an email informing them that their paper had been summarily rejected on the basis that publishing the paper would entail a failure to comply with laws based on the US sanctions on Iran. This decision was made without either consulting or even notifying the Editorial Board or even the Editors-in-Chief. We understand that this position has, after some delay and in the middle of a furore, been reversed today.

While we recognize Taylor and Francis’ obligations to comply with the laws of the countries in which they operate, this decision appears to have been made out of an excess of caution and *there cannot be any justification for failing to involve or notify the Editorial Board*.

We understand that:
(1) this is not an isolated incident, in that a similar decision was taken at the T&F journal Linear and Multilinear Algebra, and is currently being addressed through the intervention of the American Mathematical Society;
(2) that other publishers have considered the issue and concluded that merely publishing papers by Iranian authors does not contravene any laws around the United States sanctions on Iran. Specifically, the American Mathematical Society and Cambridge University Press, among others have taken the position that publishing material by Iranian authors does not break any laws. The American Mathematical Society has, as we understand it, decided that it cannot enter into contracts to pay royalties to Iranian authors, but that it will continue to publish papers by Iranians.
(3) these actions of T&F Editorial Staff have led to severe reputational damage to DS:aIJ, and threaten to damage the reputations of the Board.

Accordingly, we demand that
(1) A principle is adopted that *under no circumstances* in the future will papers be summarily rejected without consulting the Editorial Board;
(2) A public statement be put out by Taylor and Francis (a) acknowledging that this decision was made in error by T&F without consulting the board; (b) affirming the principle in (1) above; and (c) apologizing to the authors of the paper for the summary removal;
(3) A statement be put out by T&F prominently on the journal’s web site, to be developed in conjunction with the Editorial Board, clearly specifying any the full set of limitations that apply to publishing papers by authors in sanctioned countries.

We look forward to hearing from you in the very near future to resolve these
critical issues for the future of DS:aIJ.

Sincerely

Ale Jan Homburg (Editor-in-Chief)
Todd Young (Editor-in-Chief)

Peter Ashwin
Claude Baesens
Luis Barreira
Yongluo Cuo
Hans Crauel
Michael Dellnitz
Bernold Fiedler
Giovanni Gallavotti
Paul Glendinning
Vivien Kirk
Keonhee Lee
Ian Melbourne
Anthony Quas
James Robinson
Arnd Scheel
Jörg Schmeling
Ian Stewart
Masato Tsujii
Dmitry Turaev

Innerhalb weniger Stunden zog danach der Verlag Taylor & Francis seine Entscheidung zurück. Die Arbeit ist seit Mittowch wieder online: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14689367.2018.1554029?journalCode=cdss20