{"id":1205,"date":"2015-02-07T09:21:29","date_gmt":"2015-02-07T09:21:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/authors-or-journal-editors-who-faces-more-pressure-in-the-academic-publishing-system\/"},"modified":"2025-04-04T09:57:32","modified_gmt":"2025-04-04T09:57:32","slug":"authors-or-journal-editors-who-faces-more-pressure-in-the-academic-publishing-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/authors-or-journal-editors-who-faces-more-pressure-in-the-academic-publishing-system","title":{"rendered":"Authors or journal editors: Who faces more pressure in the academic publishing system?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Journal editors play a formative role in academic publishing. Apart from being the link between authors and peer reviewers, they form an indivisible part of the publication process from acceptance of a manuscript for peer review to its publishing. Therefore, editors are at times also described as \u201ckingmakers\u201d since they can make or break scholarly careers. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Considering the seminal responsibilities journal editors are assigned with and the impact of their decisions on the scholarly community, professionalism forms the backbone of their role. However, a survey report published in Society for Research into Higher Education titled Academic journal editors\u2019 professionalism: Perceptions of Power, Proficiency and Personal Agendas<\/a> highlights concerns raised by authors in the UK regarding the way they are treated by journal editors. The lead author of the large-scale survey, Linda Evans, a professor of leadership and professional learning at Leeds\u2019 School of Education, sought to understand the perspectives of both journal editors and academic authors representing 7 disciplinary groups. The data was collected through an online questionnaire that yielded over 800 responses from authors, and this was followed by interviews with 20 editors and 15 authors.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

According to the report, the main aim behind the survey was to know \u201cthe extent to which journal editors are perceived as wielding power within their academic communities, and on the nature and extent of any such power, and its consequences on those most likely to be affected by it: academics as authors.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It was found that around 60%<\/strong> of academics have encountered at least one journal editor who failed to accept or to notice obvious weaknesses in a reviewer\u2019s report. The same percentage of respondents considered the quality of academic journal editors to be \u201cvery variable.\u201d Additionally, over 64%<\/strong> of respondents felt that academic journal editors wield considerable power within their disciplinary\/subject research communities. Apart from this, authors also reported some specific problems they encountered while getting their papers published, such as:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n