In the third issue of this anniversary volume, we wanted to pay tribute to the many individuals who have served on the Human Fertility Editorial Board over its first 25 years. Like all journals, its success is down not only to those authors who submit their manuscripts for consideration, but to the many individuals (often unseen) who give up their time to organise reviewers and assess their reports and help the Editor-in-Chief identify and assemble the best manuscripts possible for publication. They also contribute in other ways to the policies and general direction of the journal as agreed at the regular Editorial Board Meetings.
Over the last 25 years, Human Fertility has had two Editors-in-Chief: Henry Leese (from 1997 to 2015) and Allan Pacey (2015 to present) – although watch this space! However, there have been 55 members of the Editorial Board () and 11 Sub-Editors (). Given that Sub-Editors were always nominated from the Editorial Board then some names appear on both lists. summarises those individuals who joined the Editorial Board as Associate Members from time to time. In each table, the most recent affiliation on file (along with city and country) are listed.
Table 1. Editorial Board Members of Human Fertility 1998 to 2022.
Table 2. Sub-Editors of Human Fertility 2010 to 2022.
Table 3. Associate Members of the Human Fertility Editorial Board (1998 to 2022).
An analysis of the Editorial Board members reveals a few interesting observations which for the historical record are worth highlighting. First, a total of 39 members of the Editorial Board (71%) have been from the United Kingdom, perhaps not surprising given that Human Fertility is the journal of the British Fertility Society. The remainder have largely been from predominantly English-speaking countries such as the USA (6 members (11%)), New Zealand (3 members (5%)), Australia (2 members (4%)), and Ireland (2 members (4%)). It is over the last few years that the non-UK members of the Editorial Board have increased in number, reflecting an internationalisation of the journal as its reputation has grown. Of those members based in the United Kingdom, it is interesting to note that 27 of the 39 UK-based members of the Editorial Board (70%) were from the geographic north of the United Kingdom (arbitrarily defined for this purpose as a line across the country north of Birmingham), with a significant contribution from individuals along the M62 corridor (Hull, Leeds, York, Sheffield, Manchester). This perhaps reflects the fact that both Editors-in-Chief to date were also based in the north: in York and Sheffield. The gender composition of the Editorial Board members over the first 25 years has been relatively well balanced, with 24 out of the 55 members (44%) being women. The longest serving member of the Editorial Board was Jane Denton who served continuously for 22 years from 1998 to 2020 and who was the subject of a recent editorial (Pacey, Citation2020).
For the first 12 years of the journal, there was a flat structure of Editorial Board Members, but in 2010 the decision was taken to introduce Sub-Editors who dealt with different types of manuscripts according to their specialisms. Four categories of Sub-Editors were introduced at that time: (i) Clinical; (ii) Scientific; (iii) Nursing, Counselling and Ethics; and (iv) Health and Social Sciences. shows the 11 Editorial Board Members who have taken on these roles. 6 out of the 11 have been based in the United Kingdom (55%) and 5 (45%) have been women.
In terms of Associate Members, there have been six in total (); mostly individuals who were often representing partner organisations on the Editorial Board (Royal College of Nursing, Fertility Nurses Group, British Infertility Counselling Association,) but who did not want, or felt insufficiently skilled or did not have time, to take on a full editorial role. However, we are grateful for their participation and for representing their organisations on the Editorial Board.
We hope that this editorial provides a useful historical record of those individuals who have served on the Editorial Board of Human Fertility over its first 25 years. We would like to thank them for all their time and effort spent supporting the journal and especially on behalf of the numerous authors who have submitted manuscripts during this time.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).