How can publishers support early career journal editors?

Abstract

Finding the balance There has been much literature published about early career researchers in scholarly communications, for example, the 3-year study by the CIBER Research team that sought to discover whether early career researchers (ECRs) were the harbingers of change with respect to scholarly communications (Nicholas et al., 2019). However, there has been little research published about ECRs who serve as journal editors – that is, early career editors (ECEs in this article). Since being appointed as the ECE for Learned Publishing, I started to think about the ways that we, as publishers, support our early career journal editors and what would attract an ECR to the demanding position of journal editor. With the goal of discovering what other journal editors think, I sent an informal email to a handful of senior academics and ECRs working on a number of Liverpool University Press journals, asking about their experience of taking on journal editorial responsibility at the beginning of their career. I asked about the main challenges they have encountered in their role, how they created a balance between their roles of editor and academic, and why they wanted to take on the journal editorial role. Their responses and insights form the basis of this editorial. At Liverpool University Press (LUP), we pride ourselves on being innovative and quick to adapt to the challenges facing the industry, and like other publishers, we are well used to dealing with a variety of stakeholders who have different needs and viewpoints. Because this is our normality, we assume that our editors have the same knowledge, skills, and outlook – this is often not the case. One ECE, coming from less than 7 years in the field of Modern Languages, said that the main challenges were getting up to speed with how the publishing process works and understanding the roles and interests of the different stakeholders involved in the scholarly communications lifecycle (i.e. academics, universities, and publishers). Looking back on their career, a senior editor commented on the value of support from colleagues while serving as an ECE. For example, they commended the advice given to them on the importance of precision in language and learning how to bravely intervene when necessary to improve an author's work. In this issue, Anna O'Brien, Chris Graf, and Kate McKellar present us with recommendations from a roundtable discussion on how journal editors-in-chief, publishers, and societies that publish can help support ECRs. Several of their recommendations would also apply to supporting ECEs. The authors state that it is ‘crucial that we recognize the issues ECRs face and that we identify the ways in which […] publishers, can ease and improve their experience’. Publishers understand that ECRs can take on various roles during their career (e.g. author, researcher, lecturer, and reviewer) and have systems in place to support ECRs as they navigate these roles, but publishers must also consider the potential for ECRs to serve as journal editors and provide the necessary support. It is easy to understand why senior academics and ECRs alike credit support from senior colleagues in their department as fundamental to their success as a journal editor at the beginning of their career. Besides overseeing the administration of the journal, the ECE must quickly learn how to commission quality content, source expert peer reviewers, establish a strong editorial team, and uphold and improve the status and reputation of the journal. They must grapple with author complaints and handle rejecting papers and could be tasked with engaging dormant members of existing editorial boards (Zydney, in the THE, 2017). However, simply undertaking these tasks is one thing; the ECE must do so with an astute attention to detail, developing exceptional time management and mediation skills in the process. A senior editor of a leading Hispanic Studies journal stated that the main challenge for academics is that the job is already full time – managing lectures, assignments, administration, research, and more – leaving little time in a notional 40-hour working week to run a major journal. Yet, editing a journal brings with it prestige and valuable experience, helping build an ECR's reputation within his or her department and field. The academic life may seem daunting to an ECR, and they may feel under pressure to assume various roles and juggle too many responsibilities in an effort to benefit their professional development. How can we make sure that ECEs have adequate time to manage the successful running of the journal? Should publishers communicate with the ECE's department to ensure their responsibility as the editor of an academic journal is recognized as part of their working day? Generally, our senior journal editors took on journal editorial responsibility as early career researchers because it helped to establish their reputation, gave them direct involvement with their field of research, and the chance to ‘learn through doing’. In addition to this, serving as a journal editor gave them the opportunity to contribute to, and be associated with, the success of a scholarly journal (Brown, 2014). One editor referred to becoming a journal editor (either as a section editor or an editor for the entire journal) as ‘a mark of prestige, not ‘included’ in your day-to-day activities as captured by your institution’. The editor also pointed out that the nature of editing a journal is similar to that of much research-related publishing activity, such as reviewing articles or writing book reviews, all of which are essential to maintain intellectual vibrancy within fields. Editing a journal is a major stepping stone to academic success and prestige; why is it considered an activity that is separate, or secondary, to the allotted working hours of an academic? The benefits of editing a journal are far reaching and could be grouped into four categories: evolution, adaptation, development, and opportunity. The ECEs gain an awareness of the overall evolution and key issues arising in the industry and must learn how to cope with the many challenges journal editors face, adapting to ensure the journal's success. As they grow their network and establish a reputation, they will see their own career advance (Brown, 2014). With an established position in the community of a key journal in their research field, the ECRs will be presented with opportunities for future collaboration and networking, attracting submissions from key names in their field and offering possibilities for their own collaborative research projects. Editorship of a scholarly journal provides a ‘privileged vantage point’ to observe developments within the journal's discipline and influence the evolution of research in the field (Senson, in the Times Higher Education, 2017). For an ECR, editorship of a journal means being able to have an impact on the direction of research published in their field at an early point in their career. ECEs can bring fresh perspectives and could identify gaps in the research published in their field, which in turn could benefit the publishers as their journals produce cutting-edge scholarship. For example, one ECE for an LUP journal identified a gap in the market for an open access outlet for research in Comparative Literature. Considering their suggestion, we created a new section on our modern languages open access platform to cover the gap in the subject area, creating a position for a new editor and thus producing fresh research for the journal. The research could be published open access under the imprimatur of a university press, something not done before in this subject area. The success of the Comparative Literature section encouraged academics from other subject areas to come forward with ideas for new sections for the platform and has encouraged collaborative and experimental submissions. By engaging younger ECRs rather than established researchers, publishers can help to challenge the status quo and bring new perspectives to their journals. What else could publishers gain from encouraging early career academics to take on journal editorial roles? If ECRs ‘provide a critical perspective on how research practices are currently changing and how they may continue to change in the coming years’ (Nicholas et al., 2019), should supporting early career journal editors not be a prerequisite of publisher strategy? Research itself is built on collaboration; the sharing of knowledge is central to scholarship (Meadows, 2018). ECR editors could change not just what but also how a journal publishes; their insight on the most effective publishing model; awareness of leading, front-line research; their keenness to experiment with exciting new research formats (video tutorials, writing sprints, data sets); and their enthusiasm to communicate and establish their place in the academic world. We, as publishers, must consciously collaborate with and encourage ECRs to take on journal editorial responsibility as they are ultimately the future of the journal industry. M. Ainsworth