This vignette gives an overview of the roles in the R Journal
editorial team, the responsibilities that come with each role, and an
overview of the editorial process. There are separate guides that detail
the operational and technical details, in particular:
Roles and responsibilities in the editorial team
The editorial team consists of four Executive Editors (EE), one of
which is the Editor-in-Chief (EIC). The EEs are supported by a team of
Associate Editors.
The team of EEs follow a rotating schedule. A new member will act as
EE for 2 years, takes the role of EIC in year 3, and returns to EE for
their last year.
AEs are in principle appointed for three years, but extensions are
possible if both the EEs and AE agree.
All members of the editorial team are expected to take appropriate
action in the case of conflicts of interest. See the conflict of interest policy.
Editor-in-Chief
The EIC is responsible for:
- production of four journal issues per year, one per quarter;
- timely and proper handling of submitted papers;
- distributing the article workload amongst the EEs;
- ensuring there are always four EEs and sufficient AEs to handle the
workload;
- resolving conflicts between authors and the Journal, where necessary
in collaboration with the advisory board;
- maintaining the R Journal
website;
- maintaining the
rj
package used
by the editorial team to conduct operations for the R Journal;
- organizing monthly meetings for the EE team, bimonthly meetings for
the AE team, and an annual meeting with the advisory board.
Executive Editors
An EE is responsible for:
- proper and timely handling of papers under their
responsibility;
- making the editorial decision (Accept/Minor/Major/Reject) for papers
under their responsibility;
- ensuring that both the reviews and the decision on submissions are
properly argued, and that this argumentation is both archived and
communicated to the authors;
- communicating with the AE and the authors of submissions;
- supporting the EIC in recruiting AEs and EEs.
EEs may choose to hand over a paper to an AE but they will typically
also handle some papers themselves. For those papers, the EE also takes
on the responsibilities of an AE.
Associate Editors
An AE is responsible for:
- finding and recruiting appropriate reviewers, such that there are
preferably at least two reviews of sufficient quality for each
submission;
- ensuring that both the article contents and the code are
sufficiently reviewed;
- ensuring timely handling of papers under their responsibility;
- advising the EE on the recommended editorial decision
(Accept/Minor/Major/Reject).
Editorial Procedure
When handling a new submission, there are several points of decision.
Here we detail who takes each decision and in which order. The way
decisions are made can be found in the AE, EE and EIC guides.
When a (re)submission arrives
- The EIC decides whether it can be assigned to an
EE. The decision is based on technical checks, including
completeness, formatting, and reproducibility. If the checks are not
passed, the paper is rejected and the authors could be asked to possibly
resubmit. If all checks pass, the EIC assigns the paper to an EE.
- The EE decides whether the submission is of sufficient
quality for review.
- The paper is assigned to an AE or handled by the EE.
- Reviewers are recruited by EE or AE. They ensure that enough reviews
of sufficient quality are obtained.
- If an AE handles the paper, the AE advises the EE on a
decision.
- The EE decides whether the reviews are of sufficient quality
to support an argued decision. Reviews should be clear,
objective, and together cover both the paper and the R code.
- The EE makes the editorial decision: Accept/Minor
revision/Major revision/Reject. The EE also archives the
decision and communicates it with the authors.