A History and Analysis of the Choral Journal Editorial Board (1959–2009)

Abstract

Introduction Professional journals have become a vital part of the academic and artistic fabric of music education in the United States. Though historians have reported that such publications often began as a means to extend the influence of their respective parent organizations, at present, most journals claim scholarly research to be at the core of their mission. (1) Scholarly journals typically retain an editorial board, which directly influences their content, primarily through the process of peer review. While the structure and editorial protocol of such boards likely has a significant impact on the journals' respective readers and contributors, little scholarship has investigated the people who serve on them or the policies that govern them. This study examines the editorial board of Choral Journal (CJ), the official publication of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), during its first fifty years in print (1959-2009). It explores how the board and its policies developed and changed over time. It also analyzes selected characteristics of board members, such as gender, term length, the number of CJ articles published, and the geographic distribution of professional affiliations and degree-granting institutions. These factors are discussed within the context of their relationship to ACDA Division populations, which changed over time in their percentage of the national population as a whole. Current Scholarship Some music research journals, the Journal of Research in Music Education (JRME) primary among them, have provided foci for previous investigations. For example, scholars have examined citation patterns to identify the most productive institutions and to quantify author eminence, as determined by the most-cited authors in a research domain over a specified period of time. (2) Others have studied the history, editorial policies, research topics, and research methodology of selected journals. (3) This line of research, however, dealt only tangentially with editorial boards. A noteworthy body of scholarship has explored the genesis and expansion of CJ within the larger historical context of its organizational affiliate, ACDA. (4) Several other investigations have examined the history and content of CJ specifically. (5) Of particular interest to the present study, Scott W. Dorsey documented various contributions and innovations of the first ten CJ editors. (6) Except for occasional references to the number of board members, however, his scholarship did not examine in detail any specific information about CJ editorial board personnel. To date, the only research to focus on a music journal editorial board analyzed editorial personnel during the first forty years (1953-92) of the Journal of Research in Music Education. (7) That research served as a model for the present investigation. Findings suggested that the appointment of women to the editorial board increased by decade, board members' rate of JRME publication before appointment increased over time, board members with earned doctorates received their degrees from a relatively large number of colleges and universities, and board members' doctoral degree-granting institutions and professional affiliations generally were distributed in proportion to JRME regional populations. The researchers applauded the progress that JRME had made in both gender equity and the broad geographic distribution of its editorial board members. Part I: History of the Choral Journal Editorial Board (1959-2009) Choral Journal was first circulated in May of 1959. The primary purpose of the eight-page pamphlet was to publicize the constitution, bylaws, charter members, and elected officials of the newly formed American Choral Directors Association. The newsletter format continued in the second issue, which functioned both to recruit members and to publicize ACDA's first national conference, held March 16-17, 1960. …