Self-publishing is common among academic-journal editors

King, Molly M.

doi:10.1038/d41586-023-00028-x

NEWS AND VIEWS
16 January 2023

Self-publishing is common among academic-journal editors

An analysis of the publication records of academic editors shows that one-quarter of them publish 10% of their own papers in the journals they edit and reveals that fewer than 10% of editors-in-chief are women.

Molly M. King ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9558-8622⁰

Molly M. King
1. Molly M. King is in the Department of Sociology, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, California 95053, USA.
View author publications

You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Access through your institution

Buy or subscribe

Journal editors determine which manuscripts go out for review, which reviewers are chosen and how reviews are adjudicated and processed. Consequently, they exercise considerable influence over scholars’ careers. Although high-profile scientific journals tend to have full-time editors, most journals are edited by academics. Writing in Nature Human Behaviour, Liu et al.¹ present a comprehensive analysis of the publication records of academic editors. Their results suggest that the prevalence of self-publication could exacerbate inequalities in academia.

Access options

Access through your institution

Rent or buy this article

Get just this article for as long as you need it

$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 613, 445-446 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-00028-x

References

Liu, F. M., Holme, P., Chiesa, M., AlShebli, B. & Rahwan, T. Nature Hum. Behav. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-022-01498-1 (2023).
Article Google Scholar
Lockhart, J. W., King, M. M. & Munsch, C. Preprint at SocArXiv https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/vedq6 (2022).
Huang, J., Gates, A. J., Sinatra, R. & Barabási, A.-L. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 117, 4609–4616 (2020).
Article PubMed Google Scholar
Cech, E. A. & Blair-Loy, M. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 116, 4182–4187 (2019).
Article PubMed Google Scholar
Joya, M., Lundquist, J. H. & Templer, A. Sociol. Forum 27, 300–323 (2012).
Article Google Scholar
Thelwall, M., Bailey, C., Tobin, C. & Bradshaw, N.-A. J. Informetr. 13, 149–169 (2019).
Article Google Scholar
Fox, M. F., Whittington, K. B. & Linkova, M. in The Handbook of Science and Technology Studies 4th edn (eds Felt, U., Fouche, R., Miller, C. A. & Smith-Doerr, L.) Ch. 24 (MIT Press, 2017).
Google Scholar
Nature 609, 653 (2022).
Article Google Scholar