1Since the beginning of 2020, a growing number of social science journals in France have ceased or scaled down their editorial operations in protest against upcoming reforms to the national research system, announcing that they are ‘on strike’ or have ‘joined the struggle’. [1] Population has become part of this movement.

2High-quality research demands considerable resources at all stages of knowledge production. Central to disseminating that knowledge, scientific journals require substantial funding—much more than most of them have at their disposal. The editorial process also mobilizes multiple skill sets specific to each link in the chain. With the internationalization of research, many journals have opted to publish bilingually (as Population has done for the last 30 years). Scientific findings must be made rapidly and freely available to a wide readership, from researchers to political and socio-economic policymakers, to the public at large. But achieving this key objective has a financial cost that funding authorities must not overlook.

3Furthermore, no high-quality publications would exist without the countless hours researchers, academics, and experts devote in their roles as reviewers, editorial board members, or editors-in-chief to assessing their peers’ work and making suggestions for improvement; not to mention the critical contributions of assistants, editors, translators, graphic designers, proofreaders, archivists, librarians, and all other specialists involved in the long process of publication and dissemination.

4We wish to emphasize, in the strongest terms, the importance of continuing this collegial and collective endeavour and of preserving the diversity, quality, and independence of editorial output in the social sciences so that the latest advances can be brought to a broad audience. This cannot be achieved without permanent infrastructures, tenured personnel, and adequate funding.

5To symbolize its commitment to the fight against increasing job insecurity in the research sector, the journal has decided to take positive action in 2020 and potentially beyond. Population articles by authors in insecure job positions at the time of publication will be open access (one article per issue) to maximize their visibility.

6The Editorial Board and Editors-in-chief