The Role of Associated Editors in Iranian Journals

Abstract

There has been a marked increase in the number of journals published inside Iran that should have a strong and fast peer review system in order to gain international acceptance and indexing. Among the peer review process the associated editors have an important role. The Associate Editors (AE) are responsible for the quality, consistency, and impact of journals in the research community. This is achieved by selecting qualified, independent and experienced reviewers to review the submitted manuscripts, and by efficiently managing the peer-review process. In other word AE’s main task is to make editorial recommendations to the EiC about what decision should be made on submitted papers. This procedure often may lead to long review process and finally decrease in submission over time. Thus it would be considerate by journal team as it may act as double-edged sword. Iranian Publishers or journal teams should prepare a user-friendly web site to facilitate peer review process for associated editors and their selected reviewers. Also holding workshop to train associated editors for review in web site is another duty of Iranian Publishers or journal teams. On the other hand the main role of AE is to oversee a fair and timely handling of submissions to journal. In some cases, the most considerate thing to do is to swiftly reject a paper, rather than enter it into a lengthy review process, taking up reviewers’ effort, and ultimately reaching the same outcome. Associate Editors should try to identify reviewers who are suited to the paper, and try to avoid asking the same reviewers to help with a lot of papers so it leads to a timely fashion peer review. In conclusion Associate Editors could help to Iranian journals and improving Iranian scientific status with timely handling of a submission.