The publishing landscape and early career researchers
Challenges in scientific publishing are as diverse as they are complex, ranging from navigating the line between scientific rigor and the rising popularity of pre-prints (Kaiser 2017), issues of equality and bias in publishing (Tomkins et al. 2017; Hofstra et al. 2020), limitations of metrics that evaluate research and researcher impact (Statzner & Resh 2010; Berenbaum 2019), and challenges of data availability and reproducibility (Pampel & Dallmeier-Tiessen 2014). Many publishing challenges also disproportionately affect early career researchers (ECRs)—e.g., concerns about impact factor for job applications (Berenbaum 2019) and biases in peer review (Tomkins et al. 2017). Still, the current publishing framework places more senior scientists in charge of decision-making and establishing editorial policies (Schäfer et al. 2011), despite the fact that ECRs are often on the leading edge of science and publishing trends and can therefore provide key insight to journals seeking to navigate quickly changing editorial waters. For example, ECRs are more likely than their senior colleagues to view the emerging practice of posting ‘pre-prints’ prior to manuscript submission favorably (Soderberg et al. 2020); and, ECRs are six times more likely to make their data public (Campbellet al. 2019). Here, we argue that ECR editorial fellowships designed around a two-way knowledge exchange benefit not only the ECRs, but also journals, publishers, and the broader scientific community through their unique perspectives on scientific publishing.
Despite the potential value of ECR participation, efforts to formally integrate ECRs into editorial processes, beyond simply serving as reviewers, have been limited. A few examples of editorial internships at medical journals exist (e.g., American Society of Clinical Oncology), and these opportunities provide a structured framework for ECRs to learn more about the process (Hopkins 2018). In the life sciences, an editorial internship at the ICES Journal of Marine Science was recently created to aid ECRs in publishing with that journal and more broadly (Howard Browman, pers. comm.). To our knowledge, the primary motivation for these internship-type programs is a “one-way” training model where ECRs gain exposure to the publishing process and build their scientific networks. While still valuable to ECRs, a “one-way” framework does not necessarily provide opportunities for ECRs to engage with, and ultimately influence, publishing processes at their focal journal and beyond.