Geographical representation of editorial boards: a review in the field of library and information sciences

Sümeyye Akça () and Özlem Şenyurt ()
Additional contact information
Sümeyye Akça: Marmara University
Özlem Şenyurt: Ardahan University

Scientometrics, 2023, vol. 128, issue 2, No 24, 1409-1427

Abstract: Abstract Diversity of editorial boards of academic journals has recently become one of the most frequently discussed topics in scientific communication. Diversity of editorial board is considered to be an important element affecting the journal, the field and the region in terms of the number and diversity of publications. In parallel with this increasing awareness in the academic circles, many studies on diversity in the literature at both the field and journal levels have been carried out. In this study, the editorial boards of academic journals in the field of Library and Information Sciences were analyzed in terms of accommodating geographical representation, and the effect of such diversity, if any, on the number of publications was investigated. The data set consisted of the journals in the mentioned field in the SCImago web page Journal Rankings. The analyzes were carried out based on 6126 persons registered to 212 journals, including chief editors. The findings of the study showed that 75.11% of all members of editorial boards were from North American and European countries. While Asian countries (Central and South Asia, and East and Southeast Asia) were represented by 13.16% in journals in the field of Library and Information Sciences. A linear correlation was found between the regions where the chief editors of the journals were registered and the assignments of the editorial boards. Moreover, a linear correlation was found between the editors of journals (chief editors and other editors assigned to boards) and the scientific outputs (citable documents, citations, and h-index) in terms of regional relationship. The consistency of the results with those of other studies in the literature clearly demonstrates a need for more transparent processes in academic publishing. A policy to ensure a fair and diverse representation in boards of journals features numerous multifaceted positive effects.

Keywords: Academic journal; Geographical representation; Diversity of editorial board; Library and Information Sciences—LIS; SCImago (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11192-022-04614-0 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:scient:v:128:y:2023:i:2:d:10.1007_s11192-022-04614-0

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11192

DOI: 10.1007/s11192-022-04614-0

Access Statistics for this article

Scientometrics is currently edited by Wolfgang Glänzel

More articles in Scientometrics from Springer, Akadémiai Kiadó
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().