Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Chaos, Solitons & Fractals editor to retire

Those who take an interest in the world of scholarly communication may be aware of the controversy that has been swirling around the Elsevier journal Chaos, Solitons & Fractals (CS&F), and its Editor-in-Chief M. S. El Naschie.


The debate, which has primarily taken place on the n-Category Café (a community blog on math, physics, and philosophy), was summed up recently by Phil Davis on the Scholarly Kitchen blog.


An Elsevier spokesperson informed me today that El Naschie plans to step down as Editor-in-Chief, and his retirement will be announced in the first issue of CS&F in 2009. "[A]s a former editor El Naschie will no longer be involved in editorial decision making for the journal," the Elsevier spokesperson commented.


I hope to speak in more depth to someone at Elsevier in the near future.


Update on Thursday 27th: Yesterday I sent a list of questions to the CS&F email address asking M.S. El Naschie to comment. I received a reply signed by someone called C. Cole saying that the questions were extremely easy to answer, but that they would be sent to the editorial board.


When Elsevier subsequently informed me that M. S. El Naschie would be retiring in the New Year I emailed the CS&F account again. C. Cole replied: "Elsevier is a large organization. Are you sure of this information or is it hearsay or rumour you have just picked up from somewhere as many other rumours which some have been intentionally spreading?"


I replied today that I had received the information in writing [email] from Elsevier, and requested C. Cole if he could ask M. S. El Naschie to confirm that he will be retiring. I also asked if he could answer the questions I sent yesterday, and whether it would be possible to speak to M. S. El Naschie by telephone. I have yet to receive a reply.


Nature has published an article about M. S. El Naschie.


Update 16th March 2010: CS&F has been relaunched with two new co-editors-in-chief, a new editorial board and refined aims and scope.

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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousDecember 28, 2008 4:44 pm

    It seems that it's now official.

    The Elsevier main page for CS&F now states: "The Founding Editor for Chaos, Solitons and Fractals Dr El Naschie will retire as Editor-in-Chief. This will be announced in the first issue of 2009."

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  2. AnonymousMarch 24, 2010 8:18 pm

    It comes as no surprise that Chaos Solitons and Fractals was relaunched. It is a respectable journal and the whole thing was a scandalous campaign launched for personal reasons on behalf of certain circles and cliches. The new Editors Courbage and Grigolini are respectable professors who worked closely with Chaos Solitons and Fractals Editorial Board in the past. Prof. El Naschie remains Founding Editor and is mentioned as such. All scientists working in this field wish the journal and its new Editors continued success so that they hopefully keep the high impact factor of the journal. It was a good idea not to change the name of the journal just because a couple of blogs went on the rampage on the net for reasons better known to themselves. Keep up the good work. I. Bohme

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