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27 Feminist L. Stud. 1 (2019)

handle is hein.journals/femlst27 and id is 1 raw text is: Feminist Legal Studies (2019) 27:1-6
https:Ildoi.org/10.1007/si0691-019-09400-7
EDITORIAL
Editorial: With thanks to Ruth Fletcher
Yvette Russell'
Published online: 20 April 2019
© Springer Nature B.V. 2019
In this first issue of 2019, and before I introduce the contents of the issue, we mark
the end of Ruth Fletcher's five-year term as Academic Editor of Feminist Legal
Studies (FLS). Ruth has had a significant impact on the direction of the journal over
the course of her tenure and it is an intimidating prospect to step into the role after
her. Ruth is a scholar of the highest calibre and integrity and her vision and pas-
sion for FLS has changed it irrevocably. Over the course of her tenure as Academic
Editor the journal has increased its download rate by nearly 60 per cent and almost
doubled its impact factor. Central to Ruth's vision for FLS when she took on the role
of Academic Editor in 2014 was to make the journal a space in and through which
feminist scholarship, activism and organising could meet. Many of her achievements
over the last five years illustrate how successful she has been in realising that vision.
While FLS is very much run as a collective (see further: Fletcher 2015a; Fletcher
et al. 2017, 12-15), the extraordinary amount of (uncompensated) work that has
Ruth contributed to the journal over the last five years cannot be overstated. As the
predatory nature of academic publishing becomes more widely reviled and large
institutions begin to opt-out of the zero-sum game that is extortionate journal sub-
scriptions, Ruth led many discussions and initiatives on the role of feminist pub-
lishing within this context. This critical work took on a number of elements, includ-
ing: hosting events in which that discussion could be had; agitating for more open
access spaces and provision within the journal; and using the editorial space that she
negotiated for with our publisher to catalogue and archive these processes.
In 2016, and coinciding with its 25th anniversary, FLS hosted the inaugural Fem-
inism, Legality and Knowledge conference (FLaK) at Queen Mary, University of
London (Fletcher 2015b; Fletcher et al. 2016a, 2017). This event was very much
developed and led by Ruth, who saw the need for a collaborative discussion between
See, for example, Editorial, 'The Guardian view on academic publishing: disastrous capitalism.'
Guardian online (4 March 2019) https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/mar/04/the-guard
ian-view-on-academic-publishing-disastrous-capitalism; Lindsay Ellis, 'U. of California System Cancels
Elsevier Subscriptions, Calling Move a Win for Open Access' (28 February 2019) Chronicle of Higher
Education https://www.chronicle.com/article/U-of-California-System/245798.
E Yvette Russell
yvette.russell@bristol.ac.uk
University of Bristol, Bristol, UK

I_) Springer

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