Abstract
This article explores the extent to which editorial board members (EBMs) of agricultural economics journals publish their research in their own journals. Journals were selected from the Journal Citation Report® from the category Agricultural Economics and Policy. Only research articles published between 2012 and 2016 were included in our analysis. We focused on the indicators concerning the share of board members publishing in their own journals, the share of articles authored by board members and on the share of board members’ articles published in their own journals and the citation response of their articles. The share of articles authored by editorial board members (7.7%) conforms to results in other branches. The share of articles that EBMs publish in their own journal, the share of non-publishing EBMs and the share of EBMs’ articles that remained uncited are strongly but inversely correlated with journals’ bibliometric characteristics. Most journals show a non-zero share of the EBMs, which publish solely in their own journal (up to 27%).
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abramo, G., & D’Angelo, C. A. (2015). The relationship between the number of authors of a publication, its citations and the impact factor of the publishing journal: Evidence from Italy. Journal of Informetrics, 9(4), 746–761. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joi.2015.07.003.
Ali, S. N., Young, H. C., & Ali, N. M. (1996). Determining the quality of publications and research for tenure and promotion decisions. Library Review, 45(1), 39–53. https://doi.org/10.1108/00242539610107749
Baccini, A., & Barabesi, L. (2011). Seats at the table: The network of the editorial boards in information and library science. Journal of Informetrics, 5(3), 382–391. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joi.2011.01.012.
Bedeian, A. G., Van Fleet, D. D., & Hyman, H. H., III. (2009). Scientific achievement and editorial board membership. Organizational Research Methods, 12(2), 211–238.
Besancenot, D., Huynh, K. V., & Faria, J. R. (2012). Search and research: the influence of editorial boards on journals’ quality. Theory and Decision, 73, 687–702. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11238-012-9314-7.
Brogaard, J., Engelberg, J., & Parsons, C. A. (2014). Networks and productivity: Causal evidence from editor rotations. Journal of Financial Economics, 111(1), 251–270. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfineco.2013.10.006.
Charlier, P. (2017). Should scholars publish in the journal they are working for? Journal of Brief Ideas. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.344615.
Charlier, P., Deo, S., & Brun, L. (2017). Should a scientist be prevented from publishing in a journal for which he works? European Journal of Internal Medicine, 41, e38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejim.2017.03.008.
CSE. (2012). CSE’s white paper on promoting integrity in scientific journal publications. Editorial Policy Committee. https://www.councilscienceeditors.org/wp-content/uploads/entire_whitepaper.pdf. Accessed 16 Jan 2018.
Donovan, B. (1998). The truth about peer review. ICSU Press Workshop. http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/icsu/donovanppr.htm. Accessed 15 Jan 2017.
Faria, J. R. (2005). The game academics play: Editors versus authors. Bulletin of Economic Research, 57(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8586.2005.00212.x.
Hardin, W. G., Liano, K., Chan, K. C., & Fok, R. C. W. (2008). Finance editorial board membership and research productivity. Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, 31, 225–240. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11156-007-0067-2.
Harzing, A., & Metz, I. (2011). Gender and geographic diversity in the editorial board of the journal of international business studies. AIB Insights, 11(3), 3–7.
Hoey, J. (1999). When editors publish in their own journals. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 161(11), 1412–1413.
Ioannou, P. (2018). Should a scientist be prevented from publishing in a journal for which he works? European Journal of Internal Medicine, 47, e23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejim.2017.07.023.
Kay, J., Memon, M., de Darren, S. A., Simunovic, N., Duong, A., Karlsson, J., et al. (2017). The h-Index of editorial board members correlates positively with the impact factor of sports medicine journals. The Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine, 5(3), 2325967117694024. https://doi.org/10.1177/2325967117694024.
Laband, D. N. (1990). Is there value-added from the review process in economics? Preliminary evidence from authors. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 105(2), 341–352. https://doi.org/10.2307/2937790.
Liu, F., Hu, G., Tang, L., et al. (2018). The penalty of containing more non-English articles. Scientometrics, 114(1), 359–366. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-017-2577-6.
Luty, J., Arokiadass, S. M. R., Easow, J. M., & Anapreddy, J. R. (2009). Preferential publication of editorial board members in medical specialty journals. Journal of Medical Ethics, 35, 200–202. https://doi.org/10.1136/jme.2008.026740.
Mani, J., Makarević, J., Juengel, E., Ackermann, H., Nelson, K., Bartsch, G., et al. (2013). I publish in i edit? Do editorial board members of urologic journals preferentially publish their own scientific work? PLoS ONE, 8(12), 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0083709.
Medoff, M. H. (2003). Editorial favoritism in economics? Southern Economic Journal, 70(2), 425–434. https://doi.org/10.2307/3648979.
Oleinik, A. (2014). Conflict(s) of interest in peer review: Its origins and possible solutions. Science and Engineering Ethics, 20(1), 55–75. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-012-9426-z.
Pardeck, J. T., & Meinert, R. G. (1999). Scholarly achievements of the social work editorial board and consulting editors: A commentary. Research on Social Work Practice, 9(1), 86–91.
Quencer, R., Bruns, D., Perrin, D., & McKnight Thompson, R. (1998). Editorial boards: How do they function? How should they function? CBE Views, 21(6), 194.
Rösing, C. K., Junges, R., & Haas, A. N. (2014). Publication rates of editorial board members in oral health journals. Brazilian Oral Research, 28(1), 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1590/1807-3107BOR-2014.vol28.0042.
Schiermeier, Q. (2008). Self-publishing editor set to retire. Nature, 456(7221), 432. https://doi.org/10.1038/456432a.
Stigler, G. J., Stigler, S. M., & Friedland, C. (1995). The journals of economics. Journal of Political Economy, 103(2), 331–359.
Walters, W. H. (2015). Do editorial board members in library and information science publish disproportionately in the journals for which they serve as board members? Journal of Scholarly Publishing, 46(4), 343–354. https://doi.org/10.3138/jsp.46.4.03.
Walters, W. H. (2016). The research contributions of editorial board members in library and information science. Journal of Scholarly Publishing, 47(2), 121–146. https://doi.org/10.3138/jsp.47.2.121.
Weller, A. C. (2002). Editorial peer review: Its strengths and weaknesses. Medford: Information Today.
Zdeněk, R. (2018). Editorial board self-publishing rates in czech economic journals. Science and Engineering Ethics, 24(2), 669–682. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-017-9922-2.
Acknowledgements
This study is an output of the institutionally funded research at the University of South Bohemia, Faculty of Economics, Department of Accounting and Finance (RVO160). The authors thank Justin Calvin Schaefer for English proofreading and an anonymous reviewer for helpful comments.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zdeněk, R., Lososová, J. An analysis of editorial board members’ publication output in agricultural economics and policy journals. Scientometrics 117, 563–578 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-018-2881-9
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-018-2881-9