Authoring a PhD

The reputation of the editors (or editorial teams) and the
editorial board
.
Despite the importance of refereeing systems,
changes of editor can have an important influence on how jour-
nals develop within their long-run market niches. Academics
love speculating about what different editors’ priorities are, espe-
cially for the bigger omnibus journals. Editing a journal is a
thankless task, but one which tends to attract senior academics
at a certain stage in their careers. A good editor is someone who
is well known in the discipline, intellectually respected but not
closed-minded, and who can project a strong and distinctive
style for her journal. The editors who become best known often
have a ‘project’ for changing their journal’s appeal in a particu-
lar direction. Good editors are also often interested in new ideas
and in bringing on younger people in their discipline via help-
ful and supportive refereeing. They are always committed to
encouraging good writing, strong scholarship and improved
standards of professional communication. The conference cir-
cuit gossip machine is often the best guide on where different
journals stand in terms of the editors’ orientation – yet another
reason for getting out there and plugging in.
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A U T H O R I N G A P H D

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Editorial boards (sometimes also called advisory boards) are a
much more distant influence on what journals do than are the
editors. But the extent to which a journal has well-known and
senior people on its editorial board can provide a fair indication
of where it stands in the international profession. If it has no
one well known involved as a board member it may have only
a very small circulation, or there may be some problem in its
approach to refereeing.