Joining a Journal Editorial Board

[syzergy]

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I was curious if anyone had experience on a peer-reviewed journal editorial board (either as a current student or graduate). Is this something that you apply for or is membership by invitation? I know of at least one advanced student in my program that's part of an editorial board and I was wondering if it's common for current students to be reviewers.

What was your experience like as an editor? How often do you receive manuscripts and what kind of turn around is expected?

I assume procedures and expectations are different for each journal depending on many factors (e.g. prestige, size of board).

I searched through some of the older threads but couldn't find any discussion on this topic. Please point me to other threads if they exist!

 

[Ollie123]

Are you talking about just serving as a reviewer (very common) or actually being on the editorial board?

I've yet to hear of any legit, respectable journal actually having students on the editorial board, though I'm sure its happened at some point. I know New School has its goofy student edited bulletin-thing, but its not exactly a place anyone I know would seriously consider submitting a paper. Probably doesn't hurt to be on the board there (and I imagine you could ask for that one), but I doubt it does much good.

Either way, you definitely don't ask - at least at mainstream journals. Typically you build up a reputation for yourself through publishing, get asked to do ad-hoc reviews, and the person asking you to do those reviews may later invite you to serve on the board. I'm sure some people get fast-tracked if say, their mentor is the editor, but in general its not something students do.

 

[syzergy]

Are you talking about just serving as a reviewer (very common) or actually being on the editorial board?

I've yet to hear of any legit, respectable journal actually having students on the editorial board, though I'm sure its happened at some point. I know New School has its goofy student edited bulletin-thing, but its not exactly a place anyone I know would seriously consider submitting a paper. Probably doesn't hurt to be on the board there (and I imagine you could ask for that one), but I doubt it does much good.

Either way, you definitely don't ask - at least at mainstream journals. Typically you build up a reputation for yourself through publishing, get asked to do ad-hoc reviews, and the person asking you to do those reviews may later invite you to serve on the board. I'm sure some people get fast-tracked if say, their mentor is the editor, but in general its not something students do.

Thanks for the clarification! What are the differences between a reviewer and an editorial board member? I understand the reviewer responsibilities but what do board members actually do? Do they still review articles or is it more of an administrative position?

I was talking about being on an actual editorial board. The student I mentioned earlier is one of those rock star grad students with a ton of publications. I'm not sure she sleeps. She just joined the board of a fairly well known journal but I guess this is pretty rare then.