Editors, manuscripts, and equal treatment

Abstract

The question of equity in the manuscript evaluation process is receiving greater attention—perhaps becuase of the increasing difficulty of publishing and an expanding interest in due process and equal treatment. Attention is usually focused on the relationship between contributors' characteristics (e.g., age, institutional affiliation) and the acceptance or rejection of a paper. Much less attention is given to question of equity in the process and procedures that lead to an editorial decision. This survey of journal editors reports data on several neglected procedural areas that may affect objective editorial judgments: “sponsored submissions,” “inside track submissions,” and back region communication. The findings suggest that editors are confronted by or involved in these procedural issues with some regularity. While additional empirical work is needed in these areas, the descriptive data we present help us to raise several critical issues and to begin a long overdue discussion of their ethical dimensions.