Becoming a Scholarly Journal Editor

What Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential did for culinary arts, Wayne Journell’s indispensable volume does for the labyrinthine world of scholarly publishing. Too many young authors find themselves identifying with Kafka’s Josef K, finding themselves enmeshed in an arcane proceeding no one ever stops to fully explain. Now, in straightforward, tell-all prose, Journell demystifies this whole murky process—an act of altruistic transparency for which all of us, experienced and novice researchers alike, should be eternally grateful.

-- Sam Wineburg, Margaret Jacks Professor of Education and History, Emeritus, Stanford University

Filled with powerful personal reflections as a long term journal editor, Journell has produced an important book that authors and journal editors across disciplines will find useful. The book sheds light on enormously complex processes of journal editing and authoring as well as illuminates moral, ethical, and professional responsibilities journal editors face in their journey to co-construct knowledge necessary to advance fields of education and beyond. Making so much of the implicit explicit, earlier and more seasoned authors and editors should read this book – questioning and critiquing why the structures and systems are what they are while learning about how to navigate and negotiate them in the production and dissemination of high quality research

-- H. Richard Milner IV, editor, Urban Education and the Handbook of Urban Education; Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair of Education, Vanderbilt University; and 2022-2023; President of the American Educational Research Association

Academia provides formal training across numerous professions. Yet, apprenticeship, rather than formal training, is the hallmark of many aspects of the academic enterprise itself—such as publishing in professional journals. What Wayne Journell takes on in his book is the fact even apprenticeship is not available to some academicians who serve in key roles, in this case, as professional journal editors. I know; I edited the Journal of Research in Science Teaching and had to piece together various aspects of the job indirectly—through publishing, reviewing, and serving as associate editor for the journal—while on the job. Drawing on his personal experience, Journell has put together a valuable resource and roadmap—complete with nuts and bolts—for future journal editors, who will benefit tremendously from this primer. In particular, the book covers key decisions that editors need to tackle when setting up their overall processes, as well as their daily operational decisions, all the way to positioning their journals for prominence and impact in the complex world of bibliometrics. Along the way, Journell provides equally valuable advice to young scholars who will be better positioned to place their work in top-tier refereed journals.

-- Fouad Abd-El-Khalick, Dean and Alumni Distinguished Professor, School of Education, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

This book is a must-read for academics to consider the magnitude and scope of being an editor. Although of primary use for current and aspiring editors, this book is also extremely helpful for authors. It helps us uphold a standard of academia that has both rigor and heart!

-- Cathryn van Kessel, Associate Professor, Texas Christian Univer