What do I do if somebody asks me to join his accusation of my colleague of academic misconduct? One of my colleagues at my institution, Prof. A, is the editor of a journal, Journal X, (and I am not involved in the journal in any way). I received an email by a professor, Prof. B, who had submitted two articles to Journal X and accuses Prof. A. of intentionally delaying the publication of these articles by not handling them properly. Prof. B claims that Prof. A did not answer his queries per email and that another editor of Journal X also did not answer his emails. The email I got from Prof. B was openly targeted to several other colleagues at my institution and also to a number of other people I do not know and also to Prof A. At the end of his email, Prof. B asks me (and the others - more or less verbatim) "Is this attitude of Prof. A normal or are there any unethical elements [...]?" and to "join in this story". 

I found it disturbing that Prof. B wrote such an email to such an audience and I would say that his way of addressing the situation was not ok. However, I wonder what my reaction should be. Normally, I would just stop by at Prof. A's office, but I am on sabbatical leave so this is not an option. I do not know more details about the issue of the publication, but I think that these do not really matter in this case, as I only want to ask about what I should do:


Should I answer Prof. B that this way of addressing the issue was not ok?
Should I inform Prof. A that I found this email inappropriate?
Should I just act as if I haven't read this email?


I would especially appreciate answers from people with experience on an editorial board, but other guiding comments are also helpful.
Delete the email (or move it to one of your folders where you keep old ones).

From what you describe, you have no business joining the complaint since you have no complaint again colleague A. It is, in other words, not something that actually affects you: someone has beef with colleague A, and that is their business, nor yours. Worse, if you did get involved -- even if just by writing back to B --, there is nothing for you to gain, just collegiality to lose. It's neither worth your time nor your reputation to act any further than reading, then ignoring the email.

If anyone ever asks you whether you got the email, just tersely say "Yes, I got it; it was none of my business, so I ignored it."