Sustainable Academia: Open, Engaged, and Slow Science

Abstract

As we take stock of our new responsibilities to the Journal of M@n@gement and its various contributors, from authors to reviewers, editors, and readers, we also acknowledge the broader challenges that science and society face today. Academic communities have multiplied critics about science’s ‘health’ and ethics in general, or those of management and organization studies in particular. From the institutionalization of imposter syndrome in our fields (Bothello & Roulet, 2019) and a pandemic of burnout (World Economic Forum, 2019), to increased scientific misconducts and threats on scientific integrity (Honig et al., 2018) and to the inadequacy of commercial scientific publishing models with the view of science as a global public good (Willinsky, 2005), academics individually and collectively face major struggles that even connect to wider challenges like climate change or ‘datafication’. In that context, we believe that we need to reflect upon, define, and identify means to achieve ‘sustainable academia’.