Load balancing

["Evan Owens" <epo@ithaka.org>]

Chuck Hamaker wrote (in part):

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Do some publishers practice load balancing--where content submitted to one
journal is passed to editors of a different journal who are running short
on submissions? The incentive to keep publishing schedules especially
since we all prepay subscriptions could be very strong. I don't know that
this happens, but then how would we know unless publisher's state their
policies clearly and provide auditable tracks?

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

There are legitimate reasons for passing articles from journal to journal.  
Sibling journals with different focus within the same discipline (e.g.,
clinical versus research) might refer authors to the more appropriate
publication venue. A society that publishes short, medium, and long
articles in the same subject area in three different bindings might
redirect submissions to the appropriate editorial office based on the
length of the submission.  In neither case would this have anything to do
with lack of submissions or publishing schedules.

How would you tell the difference between referral based on editorial
direction or suitability of the submission from "load balancing?" And why
is load balancing a bad thing, assuming that the articles meet the peer
review standards of the journal in which they are published?  I don't
quite understand the concern here.  The comments on the list seem to agree
that publishing an article twice without proper notice is a bad thing.  
Why is publishing an article _once_ problematic, as long as it is with the
full consent of the author and the peer review standards of the
publication are upheld?

In in interests of full disclosure, my comments are based on many years of
writing software to support editorial offices and the peer review process
and not first-hand experience as a journal editor.

Evan Owens 

======================================
Evan Owens
Chief Technology Officer
Ithaka Electronic-Archiving Initiative
epo@ithaka.org
228 Alexander Street, Princeton NJ 08540
voice: 609 258-8230 fax: 609 258-5778
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