The Research Contributions of Editorial Board Members in Library and Information Science

Abstract

Research experience is widely regarded as an important qualification for editorial board members. Not all board members are active scholars, however. This study evaluates the research contributions of individuals who served on the boards of thirty library and information science journals based on their publications in those same thirty journals from 2007 to 2012. Data for all authors—board members and others—allow for comparative analysis. Overall, 52 per cent of the 1,079 board members authored or co-authored at least one article in the thirty journals during the study period. The percentage varies considerably among journals, however, and it is substantially lower (35 per cent) among the ten practice-oriented journals. Moreover, the board members of the practice-oriented journals tend to write fewer articles than the authors who typically contribute to those journals. Among the thirty journals, citation impact is strongly correlated with board members' research productivity.