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Illuminating a Black Box of the Peer Review System: Demographics, Experiences, and Career Benefits of Associate Editors
Author(s) -
PoulsonEllestad Kelsey,
Hotaling Scott,
Falkenberg Laura J.,
Soranno Patricia
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
limnology and oceanography bulletin
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.433
H-Index - 10
eISSN - 1539-6088
pISSN - 1539-607X
DOI - 10.1002/lob.10362
Subject(s) - demographics , publishing , peer review , public relations , political science , engineering ethics , sociology , psychology , medical education , library science , medicine , computer science , law , engineering , demography
Abstract Editors are often described as gatekeepers of scientific publishing, as they are responsible for maintaining journal standards, deciding what is published, and ultimately guiding discourse. Scientists who are journal editors gain career benefits, yet these are rarely described to early career researchers, much less how to prepare for such a role. Additionally, disparities at the editorial level could impact which scientists receive benefits of filling these roles. To better characterize the demographics and professional experiences of current associate editors, while also highlighting the benefits and potential challenges to this position, we conducted a survey of associate editors for the Association for the Sciences of Limnology & Oceanography society journals . Our results highlight potential demographic disparities present in the editorial pool, including that non‐native English speaking editors assume the role after obtaining more experience serving as a peer reviewer than native English speaking editors. Our results also highlight several rewards along with challenging components of being an editor. We hope our results can inform early career researchers on steps they can take to prepare themselves for editorial work, as well as provide strategies for scientific societies to minimize editorial board disparities.