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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.
  1. Molly M. King

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

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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.

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Nature 613, 445-446 (2023)

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

References

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Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

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