Exploring the Black Box of Journal Manuscript Review: A Survey of Social Science Journal Editors

Abstract

Conducting and publishing research is one of the core responsibilities of academic researchers. Frequently, publications are commonly used measurements for assessing suitability for hiring, tenure, and promotion. Understanding the “black box” of the publication process is essential for budding and new scholars, who are often expected to publish at rapid paces. The current study seeks to provide information about the publication process and the editorial tasks of editors through the eyes of scholarly journal editors. We find it would benefit authors to carefully select the journal to which they will submit (making sure their manuscripts are “good fits” for the journals’ missions), focus their efforts on the initial stages of a research project (making sound decisions about methods), and remember that the scholars who are cited in their literature review sections will likely become the reviewers of their manuscripts.

Notes

1. We used only individuals editing journals based in the United States, because we did not want to confound our results given the different publication process associated with internationally based journals.

2. Readers are cautioned that we are not capable of doing any data analysis based on demographic differences across journal editors because we were precluded from asking any demographic questions beyond years of experience as a journal editor. With a sampling frame of only 75 individuals, and assumptions that most journal editors are Caucasian males, it was presumed by the reviewing Institutional Review Board that any responses from non-male and non-Caucasian editors would be very easily identified. Therefore, we were not permitted to include questions about editor demographics in our instrument.