Conflicts of Interest Arising from Simultaneous Service by Editors of Competing Journals or Publishers

Abstract

In this day and age of challenging post-publication peer review and heightened academic scrutiny, editors serve an increasingly important role in screening submissions and managing the quality of information that is published in scholarly journals. Publishers compete for an intellectual market while commercial publishers compete for a commercial share of the market. The assumption argued in this perspective is that having editorial positions in competing journals or publishers (CJPs) may represent competing intellectual, professional and/or financial interests. Thus, based on this assumption, an editor would be expected to show loyalty to a single entity (journal or publisher). Editorial positions on the editorial boards of CJPs, as well as conflicts, financial or other, should be clearly indicated for all editors on the editorial board page of a journal’s website, for transparency. In science and academia, based on these arguments, the author is of the belief that editors should thus generally not serve on the editorial boards of CJPs, or only under limited and fully transparent conditions, even if they serve as editors voluntarily. The author recognizes that not all academics, including editors, might agree with this perspective, so a wider debate is encouraged.

A reflection on Springer Nature’s current editorial policies related to “predatory” journals and references

“…Будет ли Springer Nature наказывать редакторов, которые сами публикуются в таких «хищнических» журналах, цитируют статьи, опубликованные в таких изданиях, или тех, кто вообще выступают редакторами таких журналов? Чтобы устранить профессиональные и, возможно, финансовые конфликты интересов между издательствами, я ранее утверждал, что конкурирующие позиции редакций должны быть заявлены редакторами вместе с их профилями [71]. Недавно также было отмечено, что журналы, которые приглашают в свои редакционные советы ученых, замеченных в неправомерном поведении или чьи статьи неоднократно отзывались, рискуют нанести ущерб своей репутации [72].…”

Personal Conflicts of Interest in the Publishing Enterprise: Focus on Journal Editors

“…Consequently, when editors serve as such for different journals, even more so when those journals are published by different and "competing" publishers, i.e.that is, publishers that compete for a slice of a similar intellectual or publishing market, they have the responsibility of indicating these "competing" positions and relationships not only on their CVs, social media and institutional web pages, but also on the pages of the journals' editor boards. The failure to declare these "competing" positions and relationships -even if they are not financially motivated -is equivalent to a hidden disclosure and thus hidden conflict of interest (COI) [4]. This includes personal relationships, networks or relationships with groups, action groups, think tanks, policy groups, philanthropies or any other ideologically distinct group, financial or non-financial, that may be an actual or perceived relationship of interest (ROI).…”

“…Why is it rare, almost impossible, to find editor boards with up-to-date CVs and financial and non-financial COI declarations for their editors? Even though awareness has been raised about this serious double-standard in the publishing industry, even among highly ranked and "respected" status quo journals and publishers [4,5,12,15,16,17], the predominant model continues to be that editors do not carry COI statements alongside their names on a journal's editor board. In contrast, it is not uncommon for authors to have to submit, as a mandatory requirement for submission of a paper to a journal, a COI statement, in several cases using the template provided by the ICMJE.…”