Becoming a Scholarly Journal Editor

Along with the infamous “Reviewer 2,” journal editors are a leading cause of angst among scholars. When editors are bad at their jobs, careers are damaged, reputations of journals suffer, and the overall scholarship within a field is weakened. Yet, despite their importance to the practice of academia, most editors do not receive any formal training on the editing process. Even well-published authors face a steep learning curve when navigating all of the moving parts of a scholarly journal and providing quality feedback to authors. This book is intended to be a guide for scholarly journal editors. It walks current and prospective editors through the various steps of the editing process, including establishing an editorial vision, creating editorial teams/boards, interpreting reviewers’ comments and writing decision letters, and publicizing published articles and improving journal metrics. A secondary goal of the book is to provide authors with a peek inside the process of journal editing. By better understanding the decisions that editors make, authors can make more informed choices about which journals they should submit their work, as well as improve their chances for publication.