eContent Pro® strives to work with researchers to improve the quality and integrity of published work. The academic publishing process is a journey that in most cases takes more than a year to come to fruition. In this series, “The Process of Academic Publishing,” eContent Pro® will outline each step involved in publishing scholarly works. This piece highlights the importance of having a strong Editorial Review Board.
Generating an Editorial Review Board is imperative for authors in the academic publishing process. Every Editor-in-Chief (EiC) strives for their journal to have credibility in the specific research area’s community and the easiest way to gain credibility is by arranging a strong editorial review board. Editorial review board members have defined roles that help develop and guide journals in the appropriate direction throughout the publishing process. eContent Pro will further examine below the roles of editorial review boards and why it’s important for an author to have strong contributors on their board.
Roles of Editorial Review Boards
Members of an editorial review board shape the journal with extensive reviewing of articles and further influencing of the direction and objective of the journal. EiCs want to recruit credible experts in the journal’s research area and experienced editors to serve on their editorial review board. Having experienced and diverse members on the board is critical as one of their major roles is identifying topics that are important to the research community. Experienced members can sift through topics that are oversaturated or not specific enough to the journal while pointing the research in a specific direction. The members also have the role of providing high-quality reviews for journal articles, examining content in a critical manner and challenging it when necessary.
Perhaps the most important role of an editorial review board is to be a source of feedback about the journal’s performance, growth, and development. It’s extremely helpful to receive credible feedback from experts throughout the publishing process to ensure the journal continues to develop and present relevant research. An editorial board member may even provide occasional content in the form of short articles or editorials. The usual term for an editorial review board member is three years.
The Importance of Editorial Review Boards
Serving on an editorial review board isn’t a figurehead position. It’s an extremely important role in the academic publishing process. Members of the editorial review board cover all expertise subjects in the journal. The editorial reviewers analyze content on each topic for accuracy. They also provide advice to help steer the journal in the proper direction to make it as precise as possible.
Editorial review boards also provide an important boost to journals from a promotional aspect. The review board members are essentially ambassadors for the journal. Their affiliation with the journal creates more attention to the research as the members promote it to their various networks.
Overall, editorial review boards are essential to research journals. The members support and strengthen the journal through extensive review and analysis. The experts serving on the board take pride in their role and serve the research journal to improve it as a whole. When selecting members for an editorial review board, make sure they have experience and can provide expertise on all subjects in the journal.
Authors submitting to journals must consider the strength of the editorial review board. Authors may struggle identifying a strong editorial review board or may not have the time to research each member. eContent Pro offers Journal Recommendation services that will read a manuscript and provide support in matching it to the most suitable journals across a select list of publishers. The journal recommendation service will also provide information on the EiCs of the journals and the editorial review board.
