The Academic Journal Editor: Secrets Revealed

Brooks, Thom

Abstract

Academic publishing is a world filled with more mystery than revelation. Often the best advice is made available only to those lucky enough to hear it by word of mouth. This is no less true with editing academic journals. I have enjoyed the honour of launching the Journal of Moral Philosophy and serving as its editor for the last ten years. I actively sought out the best advice on a number of issues from editors serving on leading journals as well as their publishers. Despite the fact that most of the conversations focused on journals in the areas of law, philosophy, and political science, I believe that much of the general advice remains true for most disciplines. This editorial brings together some lessons learned over the years and reveals some secrets about the trade. My purpose is to improve the information available to share best practice and offer some insight into the minds of academic journal editors. This is a task I have performed previously on the topics of publishing advice and referee guidelines that I extend now to journal editing. I begin with a brief note about my background experiences before moving to advice on how to successfully propose a new journal to a publisher. I then discuss topics such as managing a journal launch before considering advice on the effective management of submissions received and further advice on journal development.

Citation

Brooks, T. (2012). The Academic Journal Editor: Secrets Revealed. Journal of Moral Philosophy, 9(3), 313-325

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: 2012
• Deposit Date: Nov 21, 2012
• Journal: Journal of Moral Philosophy
• Print ISSN: 1740-4681
• Electronic ISSN: 1745-5243
• Publisher: Brill Academic Publishers
• Volume: 9
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 313-325
• Keywords: academia, editing, publishing
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1469421
• Publisher URL: http://philpapers.org/rec/BROTAJ-2