WikiJournal User Group/Editorial board
WikiJournal User Group
Open access • Publication charge free • Public peer review • Wikipedia-integrated
This page is for a template of common text among journals. For a list of all board members, see this page
Activity
Coordinating peer reviews
[edit | edit source]Editorial board members are expected to participate in the coordination of the peer review process of submitted articles to the board. This includes corresponding with the author, identifying potential peer reviewers, corresponding with peer reviewers and reminding peer reviewers of the review due dates. An editorial board member does not need to participate in the peer review coordination of every submitted article.
Article decisions
[edit | edit source]The purpose of the editorial board is to form consensus about whether to include upcoming articles in the journal, based on multiple factors such as scope, peer reviewer recommendations and utility for Wikipedia. In the same manner as Wikipedia is not a democracy, the means of decision making is discussion leading to consensus; Straw polls can be used to test for consensus, but polls or surveys can impede, rather than foster, discussion.
Editorial board members will be notified by email to the relevant board mailing list (only accepting emails from board members) when an article submission is up for decision, together with whether it needs to be held strictly confidential or not. An editorial board member does not need to comment on every article submission. In addition, editorial board members should join the the relevant public mailing list to stay updated about what's going on in the project. In practice, members of the editorial board have substantial communication by email, especially for confidential submissions. Public submissions can be discussed at their pages. Anyone may add their opinions and comments for such online discussions.
The main outcomes from inclusion discussions are:
- Acceptance of the article
- Rejection until there is an acceptable peer review of the article
- Rejection until article is modified
- Rejection outright
Other activities
[edit | edit source]The editorial board also discusses and makes decisions regarding the overall operation of the journal. However, major issues that do not involve confidential matters should be discussed at the journal's public forums, at Talk:WikiJournal User Group, and/or the public Google Group of the journal. Editorial board members are encouraged to invite potential additional participants to the journal.
Editorial board members may also opt to include themselves in the mailing list about matters related to the overall WikiJournal organization at the general WikiJournal mailing list. Matters that are important to the WikiJournal User Group should be emailed to its own mailing list as well. Editorial board members may also participate in online meetings, whose dates are usually announced by the board email list.
All positions in the journal are voluntary, that is, for no financial gain.
Editor-in-chief and assistant
[edit | edit source]The editor-in-chief has final responsibility for all operations and policies.
The assistant to the editor-in-chief will act in place of the editor-in-chief on the event of his resignation or incapacity.
Both the editor-in-chief and the assistant to the editor-in-chief are expected to participate in public relations of the journal, including interviews and articles when opportunities arise. They are expected to add newly elected board members to the respective board's private mailing list, whose presentation pageboard whose presentation page] (visible to members only) contains additional information for board members.
At least the editor-in-chief and the assistant to the editor-in-chief are entrusted with the journal's password to administer the journal's domain at GoDaddy. This domain needs to be renewed every other year, at a cost of approximately $30 each time. Logging into the domain's account at GoDaddy also avails for changing the email addresses included in the common email address (known by the editorial board) for updates about the journal. This site is also where redirection to another target than the current one may be done in the future.
- Duties of the editor-in-chief
The editor-in-chief has final responsibilities for the operations and policies of the journal. Contact details of the editor-in-chief should be stated online. The editor-in-chief should act as the point of contact for questions relating to research and publication ethics. The editor-in-chief should acknowledge receipt of communications from institutions and should promptly bring the matter to the editorial board for action. The editor-in-chief should keep the public informed about any changes in the aims and scope of the journal.
The editor-in-chief should not disclose confidential details about work submissions with editor-in-chiefs of other journals, unless the following requirements are fulfilled:
- Such sharing is a necessary part of fulfilling the obligation to prevent and respond to suspected research misconduct
- The authors of the work have been informed about the issue at hand, and have not given a response, or the response was not satisfactory
- The disclosure is limited to journals which are suspected of having been targeted by the research misconduct at hand, or are believed to have pertinent information of the case at hand.
- The recipient editor-in-chief is notified about the sensitive nature of the information.
The amount of disclosed information should be limited to the minimum required. The shared information should be factual, while avoiding conjecture and speculation.
- Further reading
Join
If you are interested in becoming an editorial board member, you need to abide by the following:
- You should be willing to have your full name displayed online as seen in the list of editorial board members. Affiliations should be stated as well.
- You should be familiar with the purpose and structure of the journal, as well as its Bylaws. It is also recommended to be familiar with external guidelines by which the journal abides:
- ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication: [1]
- COPE code of conduct for journal editors: [2]
- You should abide by the confidentiality policies of the journal:
Confidentiality policies
[edit | edit source]Most authors have allowed their article submissions to WikiJournal to be open-access in the wiki from the very beginning. Still, the main requirement as a member of the editorial board is to not leak those works that authors wish to be confidential up until publication. Many journals do not accept submissions that have been in the open at any time, and thereby authors may be harmed by premature disclosure of any or all of an article submission's details. Editorial board members therefore keep such works confidential by restricting discussions about such articles in email communications or at a closed group at Google Sites, rather than talk page entries in Wikipedia or Wikiversity. Members of the editorial board must not retain such works for their personal use.
You should generally ask for permission from the sender before posting non-public board emails to a public location such as in this wiki or forwarding to the journal's public email lists ((not available)
googlegroups.com and wikijournal-enlists.wikimedia.org).
Applying
[edit | edit source]If you agree with the policies, please apply here. This should include a short summary of:
- relevant professional experience
- Wikipedia or related project experience
- Publishing or editorial experience
- A statement of acceptance of the policies
All fields are optional, and you do not need to have experience in every area, however some relevant experience is very useful.
The editor-in-chief, or someone appointed by the editor-in-chief, should perform the following tasks:
- Monitor the applications page, and let the editorial board know about knew applications.
- The identity of the applicant should be confirmed, if not already properly evidenced. It may be done by contacting the person through an email or number from a public website (suggested email template).
- Journal members may ask for clarifications or complementary information.
- The editorial board will form a consensus of whether to let the applicant join the board.
Onboarding process
[edit | edit source]For applicants accepted to the board, the following tasks should be performed:
- Mark their application as accepted, by copy-pasting {{subst:WikiJournal accepted board member}} at the bottom of the section.
- Contact the new editorial board member via email to inform them (Suggested email template)
- Direct-add the new editorial board member to the board's private email group, which will grant them access to the private page only visible to board members
- Add them to the Editorial board page using the WikiJournal editor summary template
These tasks can be distributed to any editorial board members of the journal.