Re: Tenure and journals (RE: Elsevier profit)

["Anthony Watkinson" <anthony.watkinson@btopenworld.com>]

I really do not understand the point Tom Williams is making here.

All publishers, non-profit and for-profit open-access and not open-access,
want their journals to be successful and by successful they usually mean
that the journal attracts the most important articles for that audience
that the journal aims to serve. Most publishers suggest to the editor that
they get wide geographical coverage (and coverage of different
perspectives if it is that sort of field) on the editorial board but leave
the choice of the board to the editor. In the past the boards of journals
tended to be populated by the great and the good and I am sure there are
editors (and publishers) who still want editorial boards to be populated
by well-known people in top positions. As a publisher I once challenged a
rather flakey editor who wanted to start a new journal to get a prominent
editorial board and I was shocked when he sent copies of letters from very
top people agreeing to go on his board. I turned the journal down
nevertheless. But I do think the situation has changed.

Over the last decade or so however I have noticed that the emphasis is
more and more to get a working editorial board. By "working" I mean that
the editorial board are expected to referee a number of articles every
year, to assist the editor with advice, and to encouage friends and
colleagues to submit to the journal. With this job description even
prominent people are quietly let go if they do not perform and it is not
infrequent for conscientious people to back out from commitments because
they cannot deliver..

This is unpaid work. Editorial boards do it because they support the aims
of the journal and they want help scholarship. OK - if they are younger
scholars it does look good that their names are on the board of a
prestigious journal. They will get a free subscription, which can be a
help especially if like me you are self-employed and work from home. They
may get a free buffet lunch at an annual editorial board meeting as a
reward for attending the meeting in the middle of a busy conference.

I do not know what Tom Williams means about figuring out something. There
is no secrecy here and no hidden motives. I am on the board of three
journals in library and information science and for one of them I work
hard, for one I do the little I am asked and for the third I have done
nothing as yet. I cannot see where the "cushy board seats" come into the
picture.

Anthony Watkinson
14, Park Street
Bladon
Woodstock
Oxon
United Kingdom OX20 1RW
phone +44 1993 811561
fax +44 1993 811067

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom Williams" <twilliam@bbl.usouthal.edu>
To: <liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu>
Sent: Saturday, April 05, 2003 1:00 AM
Subject: RE: Tenure and journals (RE: Elsevier profit)

> I guess we're finally figuring it out.  The majority of these publishers
> pick professionals, often well known in their fields, to be on their
> editorial boards.  Clearly, this is a tremendous benefit to the publishers
> as they then have these academic and administrative leaders supporting
> their company to the hilt.
>
> This will make the changes (and they will come) more difficult since these
> entrenched people aren't going to give up their cushy board seats easily.
> It will add a wrinkle here and there but the momentum has already started
> to revise the process.
>
> Thomas L. Williams, AHIP
> twilliam@bbl.usouthal.edu