Journals publish disproportionate number of papers by their editors

An analysis of over 1000 scientific journals published over 38 years suggests that 12% of journal editors publish one-fifth of their research.

To Claire Wilson

More than 1 in 10 researchers who are also editors of scientific journals publish 1/5 of their papers in journals, and 1 in 20 publish 1/3 of their research doing. This raises the question of whether editorial submissions are treated more favorably.

For more than a decade, there has been concern that an increasing number of research papers are flawed. This is sometimes referred to as the science replication crisis, as flaws can become apparent when other research teams are unable to replicate their results.

Part of the problem is the pressure on scientists to publish as many papers as possible. This allows scientists to get promoted and access research funding.

The decision of which papers to accept is made by the journal’s editorial board, usually research scientists. Editors seek advice on submitted papers from other scientists who are experts in the topic, called peer review, and still have a lot of influence over the process.

To gauge the extent of the problem, Bedore AlShebli of New York University Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates and her colleagues found that Elsevier, the company that publishes one-fifth of the world’s e-books, has been in business since 1980. We analyzed a database of over 1000 journals published during 2018. scientific papers.

Although self-publishing rates varied widely, 12% of editors in these journals published more than one-fifth of their papers in the journal, and 6% published more than one-third in the journal.

The team used software to match each of these editors with similar researchers, including those in the same scientific field. Results show that these comparative researchers generally have a very small percentage of their papers accepted into the journals in question.

According to AlShebli’s team, this increases the likelihood that papers submitted to journals will be treated more favorably by editors, “which could be seen as an abuse of the scientific publishing system.”

“Publishing in a journal should signal that the journal thought this was good science,” says Goode, a US nonprofit dedicated to improving scientific rigor. says Stuart Buck, who runs the science project. “at least, [self-publishing] It seems like a conflict of interest. “

Oxford University’s Dorothy Bishop said some editors may try to publish high-quality science in their journals to increase their visibility, rather than boost their careers. I’m here. In such cases, scientists should step back from the editorial board’s decision on whether to accept the study and state in the paper that this happened, says Bishop.

This is recommended by a set of guidelines from the Publication Ethics Committee, an international journal advisory body. AlShebli’s team did not assess how often such statements appeared in self-published papers, so editors whose research was included in the latest research may be following this process. there is.

An Elsevier spokesperson said some scientific disciplines are narrow and may have only a handful of relevant journals, so they don’t rule out editors publishing in their own journals. Nonetheless, they say, editors should not be involved in decisions about papers they write and should clearly state so when such papers are published.