109

9Models of editing

and editorial Boards

Da n i e l e . O ’ l e a ry

Contents

Introduction 110OutlineofThisChapter 111VariablesforaModelofSizeandStructureofEditorialBoards 111

IndependentVariables:Size,Association,andDiscipline 111DependentVariables:EditorialBoardSizeandStructure 112

EditorialBoardModel 113EffectofSize 113EffectofJournalSponsorship 114EffectofDiscipline 114PowerandEditorialBoardSizeandStructure 114RelationshipbetweenSizeandEditorialBoardStructure 115

EffectofSponsorshiponTimeasEditor 115EffectsofSponsorshipon“EditorialVoice” 116

EditingaPrivatelyHeldJournal 116EditingaSponsoredJournal 116

RoleofEditor:IndividualorGroup? 117ClassicalModeloftheEditor 117Editingas“ThisisMine” 117Editingas“Crowdsourcing” 118EditorialDevicesforCrowdsourcing 118WhichModel? 118

EvaluatingRefereeReports 119OneAcceptandOneReject 119

ContradictoryRefereeReports 119TheHardestThingIstoSay…“Accept” 120

Special(Editorial)Circumstances 120Editingthe“BigHitter” 120EditingtheSolicitedPaper 121EditingtheSpecialIssue 121

K24053_C009.indd 109 11/17/14 5:32 PM

110 Daniel e. O’leary

introduction

Journalsaredistinguishedfromeachotherbyanumberoffactorsthatultimatelycaninfluencethesizeandstructureoftheeditorialboard,the “way” thateditorseditandothereditorially related issues.Thischapterinvestigatessomeoftheseissuesultimatelygeneratingmodelsofeditorialboardsandtheeditorialprocess.

Thischapter isparticularlyconcernedwitheditorialboards inas-muchastheyprovideorganizationandsupporttoeditors.Althougheditorial boards exert influence on their editorial activity, editorsprobably seldom choose the model of their editorial board.* Evenwheneditorsarepartofastart-upjournaltheeditorialboardformatand number of members is likely to be copied from some existingjournalasabenchmark.

Asaresult,thepurposeofthischapteristoprovidesomemodelsofeditingandeditorialboardsinordertobegingenerationofatheoryofeditingandeditorialboards.Inparticular,thischaptercaptureskeyvariablesfromtheeditingandeditorialprocessesandexaminesthepotential impactof those variableson editing and editorial boards.Specifically, this chapter builds a model where three independentvariables(journalsize,whethertheyaresupportedbyanassociation,andthebasediscipline)arerelatedtotwodependentvariables(num-berandorganizationalstructureoftheeditorialboard).Suchamodelwouldallowempiricalanalysisofakeysupportingstructureforedi-tors,theeditorialboard.

* Thisandotherempiricalquestionsinthischapterneedempiricalassessment.

WhatKeepsEditorsUpatNight? 122ValidDataandResults 122HavetheResultsBeenPublishedBefore? 123Referees 123

Summary,Contributions,andExtensions 124Contributions 124Extensions 124

References 125

K24053_C009.indd 110 11/17/14 5:32 PM

111MODels Of eDiting anD eDitOrial BOarDs

Outline of This Chapter

Thechapterproceedsasfollows.Thisfirstsectionprovidesmotivationforthechapterandintroducesthechapter.Thenextsectionreviewsamodelofthefactorsthatappeartoleadtotheeditorialboardstruc-tureandsize.Thethirdsectionexaminesanempiricalmodelofedito-rialboardsizeandorganization.Thefollowingtwosectionsdiscusstheimpactofjournalsponsorshiponboththetimethataneditorisaneditorataparticularjournalandtheextenttowhichthesponsorshipprovidesavoicetotheeditor.Next,arangeofdifferentapproachestoediting isexamined,goingfromaclassicalapproachtodifferentextremes,includingcrowdsourcing.Thesectionalsoexaminessomevariablesthatcouldinfluencewhichapproachisused.Thentheissueofrefereereportevaluationisexamined,followedbyasectionexam-ining a number of “special” editorial situations that have occurredover theyears.Thenext sectionexaminesa sequenceof topics thatkeepeditorsawakeatnight.Finally,thelastsectionsummarizesthechapterandexaminesitscontributions.

Variables for a Model of Size and Structure of editorial Boards

Thepurposeofthissectionistodiscusstheindependentanddepen-dentvariablesofamodelof journaleditorialboards.Suchamodelcouldprovidetheinitialbasisofatheoreticalandempiricalstudyofacademicjournals,theireditorialboards,andothercharacteristics.

Independent Variables: Size, Association, and Discipline

Thissectionlaysoutsomeofthepotentialindependentvariablesthatcouldinfluencetheeditorialvariablesofsizeandeditorialboardstruc-ture.Inparticular,thischaptersuggeststhatthoseindependentvari-ablesincludethesizeofthejournal,whetherthejournalisassociatedwith a society or other sponsoring group, and the “discipline” thatthejournalfunctionsin,forexample,computerscienceorpsychology.First,differentjournalsvarybysize,wheresizecouldbemeasuredbymanyvariables.Forexample,sizecouldbemeasuredbythenumberofpapersorpages submittedeachyearor thenumberofpapersor

Au: Is this outline necessary? There will be a chapter table of contents at top, that basically says the same thing.

K24053_C009.indd 111 11/17/14 5:32 PM

112 Daniel e. O’leary

pagespublished in each year in the journal.*That size variable canaffect a number of operational activities associated with editing ajournal,because,ingeneral,themorepaperstherearetoprocessthemorepeoplearerequiredtoprocessthem.Second,journalsarepub-lishedbydifferentsources,rangingfromsocieties(IEEEorACM)and special interest groups to independent publishing groups (e.g.,Taylor&Francis,Elsevier,etc.).Thosesocietiesandspecialinterestgroupshavememberswhoreceivethejournal,oftenaspartofbeingamemberintheorganization.Accordingly,insomecases,thejournalshavebeenestablished toprovideaparticularperspectiveor topro-videtheirmemberswitha“voice”orrepresentation.Third,journalsareapartofvirtuallyeveryacademicdiscipline.Specificdisciplinesorleadingjournalsinthosedisciplinescouldprovideeditorialmod-elsfromwhichjournalsmodelthemselves.Suchexistingjournalsinthedisciplineare likely toprovidemodelsofbestpracticesorwaysofdoingbusiness thatareat leastpartially relatedto theparticulardiscipline.Thus,thedisciplinecanprovidemodelsofeditorialboardsandediting.

Dependent Variables: Editorial Board Size and Structure

Thereareatleasttwoeditorialvariablesthatappeartobedependentonthoseindependentvariables.Eachofthesetwovariablesisreadilyvisible,typicallyontheinsidecoverofthejournaloronthejournalwebpage,wheretheeditorialboardandstructurearegiven.Perhapsthemostvisibleaspectofthateditorialboardisthenumberofeditors.Analysisofeditorialboardssuggeststhatthetotalnumberofeditorsonthosejournaleditorialboardsvariessubstantially.Forexample,thetotalsizeoftheeditorialboardcanrangefrom10or20membersto100ormore.

Editorialboardstypicallyprovideaformalstructuretosupporttheeditor.Theorganizationofeditorialboardscanrangefromasingleeditorandhisorhereditorialboardtomultiplelayersofeditors,suchas associate and assistant editors. In addition, editorial boards can

* Sizecouldbemeasuredfromaninputperspective(e.g.,paperssubmitted),anoutputperspective (e.g.,pagespublished),and fromthe relationshipbetween inputsandoutputs(paperssubmitted/paperspublished).

K24053_C009.indd 112 11/17/14 5:32 PM

113MODels Of eDiting anD eDitOrial BOarDs

includeadvisoryboardsorotherstructures.Journalsandtheireditorialboardsprovideapeculiartypeoforganizationwithparticularedito-rialboardstructuresandsizes.Assuch,theycouldprovideimportantempiricaldatathatcouldbestudiedinhopesofunderstandingedito-rialboardbestpracticesoroptimalorganizationalforms.

Editorialboardstructureinfluencesorreflectstheday-to-dayoper-ationofthejournal.Inmorehierarchicaleditorialorganizations,theeditoroftendoesnotactuallyeditpapers.Insteadtheeditorassignsthepapertoanassociateeditorwhoisresponsibleformanagingtherefereeprocess.Insomesettings,theassociateeditormakesapublica-tionrecommendation,whereasinothersettingstheassociateeditormakesthefinaldecision.

editorial Board Model

Thissectionexaminestherelationshipbetweenthevariablesprovidedintheprevioussectiontogenerateamodelofeditorialboardsthatcanbeinvestigatedempirically.ThemodelissummarizedinFigure 9.1.

Effect of Size

A priorithesizeofthejournalcanbeexpectedtoinfluencethenumberofeditorsrequiredtoprocessthosepapers.Forexample,iftherearea

Size: No. ofSubmissions;Frequency ofPublication

Sponsorship:Independent;

Society; Section

Discipline andSub-Discipline

Editorial BoardStructure:

Editor; AssociateEditors; etc.

Size of EditorialBoard: Number

of Editors

Figure 9.1 Model of editorial boards.

K24053_C009.indd 113 11/17/14 5:32 PM

114 Daniel e. O’leary

largernumberofpapersratherthanasmallernumberofpapersthereis likely to be a need for more editorial capabilities (more editors).Furthermore,asthenumberofpapersincreases,ratherthanhavingtheeditormakeeverydecision,associateeditorscouldbegiventheauthoritytomakedecisionsaboutpapers.Accordingly,asthedemandtoprocesspapersincreases,ahierarchicalstructurecouldbeneededtoaccommodatethelargernumberofeditors.

Effect of Journal Sponsorship

Journalsponsorshipcaninfluencethenumberofeditors.Forexample,ifajournalisoneofaportfolioofjournalsownedbysomeorganiza-tion,thenthenumberofeditorsintheotherjournalscouldprovideareferencemodeltobefollowed.Inaddition,journalsassociatedwithsponsorshipsettingsultimatelycouldhavepromulgatedaneditorialboardstructure,eitherbecauseoftheexistenceofsuccessfulmodelsfromrelatedjournalsorbecausethegroupeffectivelyrecommendsaparticularmodel.As a result,wewould expect that journals spon-soredbythesamegroupmayhavesimilarorganizationalmodels.

Effect of Discipline

Similarly,thedisciplineinwhichthejournalisbasedcanaffectthenumberofeditorsandtheorganizationalmodeloftheeditorialboard.Thedisciplineprovidesanumberofrelatedjournalsthatcanbeusedtoprovide referencemodelsofboth thenumberof editors and theeditorialmodel.

Power and Editorial Board Size and Structure

“Power” may be a critical issue at some point in the evaluation ofboardsizeandstructure.Ifaneditorialboardissmallerratherthanlarger,thatwouldsuggestthateachmemberoftheboardhasmore“power”regardingthepossibilityofgettingpublishedinthejournal.Furthermore, different editorial board structures appear to put theeditorialpowerindifferentgroupsofeditors.Forexample,iftheedi-torialboardusesassociateeditorswhomakeeditorialdecisionsthenthepoweroftheeditorisdiffusedtothoseassociateeditorswhohave

K24053_C009.indd 114 11/17/14 5:32 PM

115MODels Of eDiting anD eDitOrial BOarDs

increasedpower.Similarly,ifonlytheeditormakespublicationdeci-sionsthentheeditorialpowerismoreconcentrated.

Concernswitheditorpowerprobablyaremost likelytomanifestthemselves in sponsored journals. However, a priori, it is unclearif journal sponsorships result in diffusing publication power of theeditortoassociateeditorswhomakepublicationdecisionsoriftheycentralizethepowerineditorialmodelswhereasingleeditormakeseditorialdecisionsonpapers.

Relationship between Size and Editorial Board Structure

Finally,itmaybethateditorialboardsizeandstructurearerelated.If there are a large number of editors it can prove to be necessaryto generate organizational structure devices to help manage them.Forexample,iftherearealargenumberofeditors,itcouldfacilitateorganizationandprocessingofpaperstohavesomeeditors(associateeditors)chargedwithdifferentdecisions,suchasdeterminingwhetherapapershouldbepublished.Alternatively,certainstructuresarelikelytobeable toaccommodatea largereditorialboard.Forexample, ifthereareassociateeditorschargedwithmakingeditorialdecisionsonpapers,thentheyarelikelytoneed(oraccommodate)additionaledi-torstohelprefereethepapers.Accordingly,researchoftheseissuesmightalsodrawfromtheclassicspanofcontrolliterature.

effect of Sponsorship on Time as editor

What are the primary variables that seem to influence the editor’stenureat aparticular journal?Perhaps themost importantvariableis likely to be whether the editorial position is for an independentjournalorasociety/sectionjournal.Editorialactivitiesforsocietyandsectionjournalsaretypicallylimitedto“terms,”forexample,threeorfouryears.Editorsmaygetmultipleterms,however,frommyexpe-rience,editorsrarelygetmorethanoneortwoterms.Ontheotherhand,editorialtenureforindependentjournalscanbearbitrarilylong:there are rarely specific terms of service. Although the other twoindependentvariables(sizeanddiscipline)fromFigure 9.1alsomayaffecteditorialtenure,theiroveralleffectsarenotlikelyasinfluential.

K24053_C009.indd 115 11/17/14 5:32 PM

116 Daniel e. O’leary

effects of Sponsorship on “editorial Voice”

There probably are a number of different variables that appear toinfluencethemodelofeditingusedbyaneditor.Basedonmyexpe-rience,oneparticularly importantvariable iswhether the journal isindependentsponsored.

Editing a Privately Held Journal

Asaneditorofanindependent,privatelyheldjournalthereprobablyisgreaterfreedomthananyothereditorialenvironment.Generally,aslongasthejournalissuesareproducedontimewiththeappropriatequality,thepublisherismakingmoney,andtherearenocomplaints,theeditorfacesfewconstraints.Iftheeditorseesapaperthathefindsinteresting,heliterallycanasktheauthortosubmitthepapertothejournal.Iftherefereesdon’tlikeapaperthentheeditorstillhasthepre-rogativetopublishthepaper.Ifaneditorwantstopursueatopicshecansolicitapaperonthattopic.

Editing a Sponsored Journal

In some cases the journal is part of some group such as a sectionfromasociety,andtheeditorrepresentsthemembersofthatsociety.Editorsofsectionjournalscanfacepoliticalbattlesoverthecontent:“Thereshouldbemorex research;youarebiasedtoomuchtowardyresearch.”Editoriallythiscanmeantryingtogivethesponsoringmembera“voice”intheeditorialprocess.Inthatsituation,theper-spectiveofthemembersofthesectionbecomescritical.

Formebeingtheeditorofasectionjournalmeantensuringthatthevoiceofthesectionwasheardandfindingawaytoembedthatintotheeditorialprocess.Foreachpaper, thismeant relyingheavilyonrefereereportsthatweregatheredspecificallyfromsectionmembers.Accordingly,astheeditorofasectionjournal,IreliedveryheavilyonthejudgmentoftherefereeswhoImadesurewereallgatheredfromthesponsoringsection. Au: this sentence

basically says the same thing as the previous sentence. OK to delete?

K24053_C009.indd 116 11/17/14 5:32 PM

117MODels Of eDiting anD eDitOrial BOarDs

role of editor: individual or Group?

Editinggenerally isseenasaroleinagroupactivity,withtheedi-tor functioningwithin the context of an editorial board.Althoughitappearsthatmosteditorsemploya“classical”approachtoediting,thereareatleasttwootherextremes.Atoneextreme,theeditorplayssuchastrongrolethattheentireeditorialprocesscanbereducedtoasinglerole,theeditor.Attheotherextreme,theeditorissimplyonememberof thecrowdandtheoverallapproachtoediting isoneofcrowdsourcingediting.

Classical Model of the Editor

Intheclassic(traditional)approachauthorssubmittheirpaperstotheeditorwhothenassignsthepapertotwoormorereferees.Theeditormayormaynotreadthepaper.Eachoftherefereesthencompletesareportonthepaperwitharecommendationthatrangesfromrejectingthepapertorevisingthepapertopublishingthepaperasis.Aftertheeditorhasreceivedbothreports,sheexaminestheconsensusoftherefereesandmakesherdecisionbasedontherefereereports.

Editing as “This is Mine”

Incontrasttotheclassicmodel,the“thisismine”editoroftentakesaheavyhandonmostpapers.Forexample,theeditormaycompletelyreviewthepaperbeforehedecideswhethertosendthepapertothereferees.Inthissetting,theeditormaycompletelyrewritesentencesand even entire sections.Usually the author is not in aposition toobject,somostauthorssimplyimplementtheeditor’schanges.

Inthecaseof“thisismine”theeditormakesanumberofexplicitsuggestionsthatmustbetaken,downtothesentencelevel.Oftentimesthe“thisismine”editorincludestherefereereportofasinglereferee.AlthoughIhaveneverusedthismodel,itismysuspicionthatinthiscase,therefereeis likelytobetheeditororoneofhiskeyeditorialboardmembers.

AU: Change OK?

K24053_C009.indd 117 11/17/14 5:32 PM

118 Daniel e. O’leary

Editing as “Crowdsourcing”

Atanotherextreme,writingandeditingcantaketheformofcrowd-sourcing.Aresearchpaper is sent toa senioreditorand then to therefereesandinputisgathered.Ingeneral,themorerefereesthereare,themoreadditionalinformationthatcanbegathered.Theeditormayreviewthepaperandprovideanadditionalsetofcomments.Insodoingtheauthorscangetmanynewideasrelatedtothepaper.OvertheyearsIhavehadanumberofauthorsthanktherefereesandeditorsfornewideasforresearchpapersderivingfromthecrowdsourcingmodel.

Some journals push this crowdsourcing model even before thepaper is submitted, encouraging the author to submit the paper tomajorconferencesbeforesubmittingthepapertothe journal.Insodoingthepapergathersincreasingamountsofinputfromthecrowd.In addition, the paper gets additional credibility stamps of havingbeenacceptedandpresentedatthesetofparticularconferences.

Although the comments may not necessarily be helpful, theauthors are not in a position to not accept the crowd’s suggestionsbecause the editor and referees typically will have at least anotheropportunitytoevaluatethepaper.Althoughsomepapersareheav-ilycrowdsourced,thereaderwillnotknowotherthanbyreviewingtheacknowledgments.

Editorial Devices for Crowdsourcing

Thereareanumberofdevicesthatcanfacilitateeditorialcrowdsourc-ing. For example, papers can be posted and referees can choose torefereeapaperorapartofapaper.Similarly,associateeditorscouldchoosetotakecontrolofeditingapaperratherthanbeingassignedapaper.Potentially,refereesandeditorscouldvoteonwhethertoacceptapaper.However,suchapproachescouldarguablygenerateinappro-priateorbiasedreviewsfromparticipantswhoarenot“arms-length.”Finally,therecouldbeaconcernthattheeditorialworkmightnotgetdone:“Whowilltakethepaperthatnoonewantstoreview?”

Which Model?

Based on my experience the classic model and its crowdsourcingnaturearethemostfrequentlyused.ThemodelinFigure 9.1provides

K24053_C009.indd 118 11/17/14 5:32 PM

119MODels Of eDiting anD eDitOrial BOarDs

atleasttwosetsofvariablesastowhy.Theuseofthe“thisismine”approach likely has mostly been outside sponsored society settingswheretheeditorisbasedinanindependentjournalandtherearenoreal“member”concerns.Inaddition,thenumberofpaperssubmittedandprocessedcanalsoinfluencetheeditorialapproach.Forexample,ifthereareasubstantialnumberofpaperssubmitted,thentheeditorisnotlikelytohavesufficienttimetoplayamajorroleinevaluatingeachpaper.Finally,thedisciplinealsoislikelytohaveaneffectwitheditorsinsimilardisciplinespotentiallyfollowingsimilararchetypes.

evaluating referee reports

On the surface, being a journal editor means sending a paper toreferees,waiting for their reports,andthenreporting theresults tothe author. The ideal situation is where two or more referees eachsubmittheirrefereereportsinatimelymanner,substantiatingtheirevaluationwithwell-reasonedcommentsinsufficientdetailsoastobeabletofollowthereasoningbehindtheirrecommendation,whilesimultaneouslyprovidingsufficientguidancetotheauthorforrevisingthepaper.Inaddition,inthisidealsituation,therefereeshavesimilarjudgments, of which the editor can confirm and generate a timelyresponsetotheauthors.Unfortunately,theidealsituationisrelativelyrare.Refereesoftentimesdisagreewitheachotherandthequalityoftheirdiscussionsofthepapermaybeverylimited.

One Accept and One Reject

A difficult situation for editors arises when there are two refereereports,one“accept”andone“reject.” Inaddition, toconfoundthesituationfurther,inthissetting,inevitably,oneoftherefereereportsdoesnotprovidemuchinsightintowhytherefereemadetheevalua-tionthathedid.Asaresult,thissettingoftenrequiresthattheeditorbe the “tie breaker” or that additional referees be sought. In eithercase,thiscansubstantiallyextendthereviewtimeforthepaper.

Contradictory Referee Reports Whileshepherdingapaperthroughtheeditorialprocessitisnotunusualtoreceivetwowidelydifferentref-ereereports.Inonerecentcase,oneoftherefereereportsindicated

K24053_C009.indd 119 11/17/14 5:32 PM

120 Daniel e. O’leary

thatthescopeofthepapershouldbecutdownbecausethepaperwastoo broad. That referee also indicated that the paper was too long.However, theotherrefereereportsuggestedthatthepaperwastoonarrowandreallyneededtoconsiderotherissues.Thesecondrefereesuggested that thepaperwas too short.The reviewswent as far asliterallytosuggestexcluding/includingthesameissues.

Althoughtheauthorcantrytoaccommodateboth, it isunlikelythathewillbesuccessfulinsuchasituation.Suchdivergentreportseffectivelyrequiretheeditortomakeadecisiononewayortheother.

The Hardest Thing Is to Say … “Accept”

Inacademia,PhDstudentsaretaughttofindlimitationsinresearchbyanalyzingabroadrangeofpapers.Evenpapersthatarepublishedin well-respected journals, generating large numbers of citations,sometimesarecriticizedas“mistakes.”

Asaresult,inmanycasesthehardestthingforareferee(oreditor)istosayyestoapaper.Instead,asarefereeortheeditor,the“safest”strategyisjustsayno.Afterall,everypapercanbeimproved,atleastfrom someperspective.Accordingly, it is easy to sayno to apaperbecause thedata couldbebetter,or theprevious research isnot ascompleteasitcouldbe,oritcouldbebetterwritten,orthereismoreanalysisthatcouldbedone.Unfortunately,wearenotoftentaughttofindthebeautyinapaper.

Special (editorial) Circumstances

Asaneditortherecanbesome“difficult”specialcircumstances.Forexample, editors may note that some contributors are particularlyinfluentialandwellknown(e.g.,the“BigHitter”).Asanotherexam-ple,editorsmaysolicitapaperfromaspecificuserorgroupofusersresultinginitsownconcerns.

Editing the “Big Hitter”

Irefertothewell-published,influential,andwell-knownresearcher,asthe“BigHitter.”

K24053_C009.indd 120 11/17/14 5:32 PM

121MODels Of eDiting anD eDitOrial BOarDs

Animportantquestionis,“DoeditorstreatpapersfromBigHittersinthesamewayaspapersthatarenotfromBigHitters?”BasedonthebehaviorofjuniorauthorswholetBigHittersontheirpapers,some-timesforlittleacademicactivity,itisclearthatjuniorauthorsthinkso.ManyjuniorauthorsthinkthatalltheyneedtodoishavetheBigHitterasacoauthorandthatguaranteesapaperforacceptance.

Mosteditorsemployadouble-blindreviewprocess.Accordingly,theappearanceoftheBigHitterasanauthorshouldbeeliminatedby theprocess.However, in some cases referees try to identify theauthors. In other settings the process is not double-blind so thatthe reviewer knows who the authors are. As a result, there can beinformation corrupting the editorial process so that reviewers candeterminetheauthors.

Inmyexperience,theBigHitterisnottreateddifferently,butthequestionastowhethertheyaretreateddifferentlyisanempiricalone.IcansaythatIhavefoundthatBigHitterstypicallyarepublicationsavvy.BigHittersknowbetterhowtosellapaperandtheyunder-standbasicissuessuchastheauthorsneedtorespondtoeachofthecommentsgeneratedbyreferees.

Editing the Solicited Paper

In some settings the editorwill seekout apaper fromaparticularauthororgroupofauthors,effectivelypromisingtopublishthatpaper.Editingthispapercanbeproblematic,becausetheeditorwantsthepapercontributedbutontheotherhandheorshewantstomakesureitisdonewellandmeetstheneedsofthejournal.Ifthepaperisnotinitiallywelldoneitcanbedifficultgettingtheappropriatechanges.Inanycase,solicitingpapersismucheasierindependentofanyspon-soring organizations inasmuch as there is no concern for equity ofmembersorbiasingtheeditorialprocessforanonmember.

Editing the Special Issue

In some settings special issues of a journal are delegated to a spe-cialissueeditorialteam.Inthiscasethejournaleditorhastodecideifhe trusts thateditorial team“enough”or ifheshouldprovidean

K24053_C009.indd 121 11/17/14 5:32 PM

122 Daniel e. O’leary

additional layerofeditingorrefereeing.Alternatively, ifthereareanumberofspecialissuesthenthatcanresultinadoptionoftheedito-rialboardtoprovidetheappropriateeditorialparticipation.

What Keeps editors Up at night?

Whataresomeofthemajorconcernsofeditors?Ethicalissues,suchasusingvaliddata,aresomeofthekeyconcernsofeditors.Inaddi-tion,editorsareprobablymostconcernedaboutgettingrefereesactu-allytorefereepapersthattheysaytheywillreferee.

Valid Data and Results

Perhapsthemostimportantissuefacingeacheditorrelatestotheinfor-mation intheresearchpapers thatheultimatelypublishes:Aretheresults real? In some cases there have been research papers wheretheresearchershavebeenaccusedofliterallymakingupthedata.

One of the most recent cases focuses on a well-known account-ingprofessor fromBentleyUniversity inBoston.ThecaseofJamesHunton has been documented in a sequence of newspaper articlesfromThe Boston Globe(Healy,2012,2014)andareportfromBentleyUniversity’sethicsofficer(Malone,2014,“BentleyReport”).

Aftertheretractionofaresearchpaperbecauseofconcernsaboutdata in the original paper (Hunton and Gold, 2013) and after thereportfromBentleyUniversity’sethicsofficer(Malone,2014),therewas substantial concern by the sponsoring organization (AmericanAccounting Association—AAA) that owned the journal that pub-lished the retracted paper about what the findings meant to bothother authors and other research papers. For example, as noted inMalone (2014) the confidential incident reporter raised concernsabout10otherpapers.Furthermore,asnotedbytheexecutivedirec-toroftheAAA,Sutherland(2014,p.2)“…asmallteamhasbeentasked with developing and implementing the steps necessary toaddresstheimplicationsoftheBentleyreportacrossalljournalspub-lishedbytheAAA.”Notjusttheauthorsoftheoriginalpaperwouldbeaffected,butadditionalauthorsandadditionaljournalspotentially

K24053_C009.indd 122 11/17/14 5:32 PM

123MODels Of eDiting anD eDitOrial BOarDs

wouldbeaffected.AsnotedbySutherland(2014,p.2)“…ournextstepswillinvolvereachingouttoallcoauthorsofthe30relatedarti-cles published across eight of our journals, asking them to provideindependentevidenceofthevalidityofthedataonwhichtheirarti-clesarebased.”Accordingly,therewasconcernaboutwhethersomeof Hunton’s other previous research papers published by the AAAwerebasedonvalidor invaliddata.Finally,Sutherland(2014)alsonotedthattheAAA“…willtakeactionaswarrantedbyoutcomesofourprocess.”Asaresult,additionalpapersmayalsobeaffectedbytheseinvestigations.

Have the Results Been Published Before?

Anothercriticalconcernis,“Hasthepaperbeenpublishedbefore?”Thereareatleastthreewaysthatleadtodeterminingifthepaperhasbeenpreviouslypublished.First,Ihavehadrefereesindicateontheirreportsthatthepaper(oronethatlooksalotlikethepapersentthemtoreview)hasbeenpublishedbeforeeitherbecausetheyknewaboutthe previous version or ran across it as part of the referee process.Second,Ihavefoundthepaperaspartofaninformalsearchtodeter-mineifthepaperhadbeenpreviouslypublished.Third,therearenowtools(analogousto“Blackboard”)availabletosearchtheInternettodetermine if thepaperhas beenpreviously published or the extenttowhichthepaperhasappearedinotherformsorsettings.

Referees

Asaneditorakeyactivityischoosingrefereesforapaper.Occasionally,Ihavefoundthatpotentialrefereesaccepttheassignment,butthendonotprovidearevieworprovideauselessreviewwithnorealsubstan-tivecomments.Unfortunately,bythetimethattheeditorfindsouteithersituation,thepapertypicallyhasbeeninprocessforarelativelylongperiodoftime.Furthermore,typically,anotherrefereemustbefoundandgiven sufficient time to review thepaper.Accordingly, Ihavefoundthatthelackofappropriaterefereeresponseistheprimaryfactorslowingtheeditorialprocess.

K24053_C009.indd 123 11/17/14 5:32 PM

124 Daniel e. O’leary

Summary, Contributions, and extensions

Thischapterhaspresentedsomemodelsofeditorialboardsandedit-ingandexaminedsomeoftheissuesthateditorsface.Thisdiscussionsuggests that issues suchas journal size (input,output,or the rela-tionshipbetweenthem),sponsorship,anddisciplinecanhaveamajorimpactoneditingandeditorialboards.

Contributions

Thischaptergeneratedmodelsofeditingandtheeditorialboard.Insodoing,thischapterhasgeneratedanumberofassertionsaboutedi-torialboardsandtheeditorialprocessthatultimatelycouldbegintogeneratea“theoryoftheeditorialprocess.”Inaddition,manyofthoseassertions and models could be analyzed empirically. For example,thechapternotedthatitappearsthatlargerjournals(e.g.,withmorepapersubmissions)aremorelikelytoemployaneditorialmodelwithassociateeditorswhoareresponsibleforensuringthatpapersgetref-ereed and ultimately making decisions regarding paper acceptance.Asanotherexample,thechapteranalyzedtheimpactofjournalspon-sorshipsonarangeofdifferentvariables, includingeditorialboardsandediting.

Extensions

Thereare anumberof extensions to thediscussion in this chapter.First, themodelsgenerated inthischapterare largelybasedonmyexperienceasaneditor,referee,andauthor.However,itwouldseemthat someexisting theorycouldbeapplied to someof these issues.Forexample,inthemodelsdevelopedinthischapterthesizeoftheorganization(e.g.,numberofsubmissions,numberofpagesprinted,etc.)seemstoaffecteditorialboardsandediting.Similarly,organiza-tionsizehasplayedanimportantpartineconomic-basedmodelsoforganizations.Asaresult,additionaltheoriescouldbegeneratedandembeddedinthesemodelsofeditingandeditorialboards.Second,inthischapter,editorialboardsizeandstructurewereeachtreatedasdependentvariables.However,itislikelythatthereissomeinterac-tionbetweenthosetwovariables.Forexample,alargeeditorialboard

K24053_C009.indd 124 11/17/14 5:32 PM

125MODels Of eDiting anD eDitOrial BOarDs

likelyrequiresmorehierarchicalstructurethanasmalleditorialboard.Third, it canbe argued that editorial boardsprovide a signal as tothe nature and quality of the journal, a governance model of howpaperswillberefereed,aready-to-usesourceofeditingandrefereeingcapabilities,andasignalastobywhomandhoweachpaperwillberefereed.Furtherresearchcouldinvestigatetheextenttowhichthosesignals could be captured by empirical models of editorial boards.Fourth,anumberofjournalsemployspecialissuesgeneratedbyeitherexistingeditorialboardmembersorthosefromoutsidetheeditorialboard.Typically,thosespecialissuesarebasedonpapersfromawork-shoporsymposiumorthepapersarechosenaroundaspecialtopicoralimitedscope.Asaresult,oftentimesthosespecialissuesrequiretheabilitytodependontheeditorstoensurethatthecontentisrefereedappropriately. As a result, this can require an organization schemewhichcaptures that independence.Fifth,perhaps timealsoplaysasignificantroleinjournaleditorialboards.Forexample,asajournalevolvesovertimethestructuresusedtogovernitcanevolvetoincludeincreasinglevelsofcomplexity,suchashavingmultipletypesofedito-rialboardmembers.

ReferencesHealy,B.(2014).FalsedataputallofBentleyprofessor’sworkunderreview.

The Boston Globe,July 21.Healy,B.(2012).Bentleyprofessorresignsafterhisresearchisretracted.The

Boston Globe,December 21.Hunton, J. andGold,A. (2013).Retractions:Afieldexperiment comparing

theoutcomesofthreefraudbrainstormingprocedures:Nominalgroup,roundrobin,andopendiscussion.The Accounting Review,88(1,Jan.):357.

Malone, J. (2014). “Report of Judith A. Malone, Bentley University EthicsOfficer, Concerning Dr.  James E. Hunton,” https://www.bentley.edu/files/Hunton%20report%20July21.pdf,July 21,2014.

Sutherland,T. (2014).“AAALeaderUpdateonBentleyUniversityReport.”E-mail,July 23,2014.

K24053_C009.indd 125 11/17/14 5:32 PM

K24053_C009.indd 126 11/17/14 5:32 PM