Academic freedom in publishing on gender-based violence and harassment

The edited collection Sexual Misconduct in Academia was published in 2023 by Routledge-Taylor & Francis Group but a few months later the book was withdrawn from publication. This commentary and criticism piece reports on a webinar that discussed issues arising from this situation, aiming to shed light on the use of Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) to silence authors publishing academic work about gender-based violence and harassment (GBVH). The authors of this commentary piece were panellists in the webinar. Two authors shared experiences of being targeted with complaints or threats about their academic work. A publisher’s perspective shed light on how these situations come about. The webinar also included discussion of activism and current developments in the European legal context to address this issue. The webinar discussion revealed some of the ways in which higher education institutions (HEIs) and academic publishers are being caught up in silencing of academic authors. These include not only SLAPPS but also academic misconduct protocols within HEIs and publishers’ complaints processes. Ongoing activism is needed to ensure that survivors and other academics are able to exercise academic freedom in publishing on this topic.