Journals should prepare publicly available guidelines on the handling of special issues. Such documentation will spell out how a journal will control for ethicality and protect the validity of the peer review process.
Instructions can be a valuable resource, particularly if you pay attention to them. Whether you’re trying to replicate a mouthwatering recipe, assemble a holiday toy, or just use that new ‘thing’ that you’ve received, your goals are to do it quickly, do it right, and produce something valued and useful.
Since 2009 when the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) instituted the “Publish Ahead of Print” model, the ASCE Journals have been steadily moving to a new publishing model—article-based publishing, or “Issues in Progress.” In this model, instead of placing articles online in a “Just Released” section of the ASCE Library, articles are placed in “open” issues. Essentially this means that at any given time, an issue is “open” online where articles are placed until the issue closes and the next issue is opened. This allows authors to now have both the DOI and the volume and issue number of their article as soon as it is placed online. This is a big step forward for a society publisher, but how did we get here and what were the pain points of the various publishing models employed over the years?
Some of the most rewarding experiences in my career by far have been the close relationships I’ve established with journal editors over the years. I have found that the longer I’ve been in this business, the more these relationships have turned into partnerships—and in some cases—friendships.
A journal’s workflow dictates how articles make their way through submission, peer review, decision-making, production and then, into an issue and the hands of readers. Whether a print publication or an online (digital) publication, the editorial office workflow is a critical component to compiling articles for an issue and how that issue is released.
f you’re currently in the driver’s seat of your journals’ social media program, you may find it daunting in a variety of ways. With every post I crafted for our journal social media accounts, I’d find myself questioning if what I wrote captured the most compelling takeaway for that particular research article.
In this article I will discuss hard and soft skills and how to define, evaluate, develop, and measure these attributes as they pertain to a contractor whose success with signing and keeping clients is often tied to a strong skill set in both. As independent consultants and often small-business owners, the ability to communicate effectively, yet diplomatically, with potential and existing clients is the key to growing your business. While your technical publication skills, whether copyediting, proofreading, or writing, etc. could be stellar, if initial conversations or contract negotiations don’t convey a respectful approach with your patron then chances are they will move on to another talented consultant whose tone was more professional.
The textbook definition of “ethics” is: the rules of conduct recognized in respect to a particular class of human actions or a particular group, culture, etc. Ethics as they govern publishing have taken on a larger and broader scope throughout the course of my 28-year career, extending beyond the more traditional forms of ethics policies. Ethics historically focused on figure manipulation and plagiarism – but now we have moved into an era of paper mills and AI-generated reviews and manuscripts. How you handle ethics in your editorial office is extremely important to all stakeholders involved in the peer review process; therefore, having a firm grasp on exactly what your policies are and how you enforce them is paramount.
In this second of three posts on the theme of reviewer training as a form of engagement to both increase reviewer invitation acceptance rates and elevate review standards, we look at a variety of training programs that have already been implemented. This endeavor was not a methodologically driven academic exercise. Instead, the purpose of this post is simply to collate some potentially inspiring programs that journals and societies may consider emulating. The final post in this series will reflect upon the issues associated with implementing a peer reviewer-training program.
