Navigating Editorial Board Relationships
- Presenter(s): Walter Biggins; Dawn Durante; Douglas Hildebrand; Stephanye Hunter
- Session Length: 75 minutes
- Date: Jun 11, 2025
Editorial boards (also known as faculty boards or press boards) are integral to the scholarly vetting process overseen by members of the Association of University Presses. Along with rigorous peer review processes, these boards are cornerstones of both AUPresses membership eligibility and the high regard in which Association members are held in the scholarly ecosystem. At the end of 2024, the AUPresses Acquisitions Editorial Committee sent out a survey querying university presses about practices surrounding their editorial boards. This survey is an update of a previous survey of editorial board practices conducted in 2016-2017. The data gathered by the 2024 survey has been shared anonymously with the Acquisitions Editorial Committee and will be used to produce an updated survey report that reflects changing practices in the university press community. The nearly 50 questions on the survey reflect the diversity of board practices among university presses and the value of faculty editorial boards to the publication process. While editorial boards may vary in their specific roles and charges, however, all university presses must navigate relationships with their editorial board and the individual members that comprise it. This panel will reflect on how UP staff educate new board members on their charge, how presses continue to reaffirm the board's role over time, and how they develop and maintain relationships with board members. Questions may include:
- How are new members brought onto the editorial board?
- What materials are provided to board members at orientation or shared with board members during their tenure to explain their role?
- How does the format and the structure of the editorial board meeting allow the press to clarify the role of the editorial board?
- Outside of board meetings, do press staff build relationships with individual board members?
- What types of challenges have presses encountered in reminding board members of their charge? How have these challenges been successfully navigated, or how might they be more successfully navigated in the future?
description
Editorial boards (also known as faculty boards or press boards) are integral to the scholarly vetting process overseen by members of the Association of University Presses. Along with rigorous peer review processes, these boards are cornerstones of both AUPresses membership eligibility and the high regard in which Association members are held in the scholarly ecosystem. At the end of 2024, the AUPresses Acquisitions Editorial Committee sent out a survey querying university presses about practices surrounding their editorial boards. This survey is an update of a previous survey of editorial board practices conducted in 2016-2017. The data gathered by the 2024 survey has been shared anonymously with the Acquisitions Editorial Committee and will be used to produce an updated survey report that reflects changing practices in the university press community. The nearly 50 questions on the survey reflect the diversity of board practices among university presses and the value of faculty editorial boards to the publication process. While editorial boards may vary in their specific roles and charges, however, all university presses must navigate relationships with their editorial board and the individual members that comprise it. This panel will reflect on how UP staff educate new board members on their charge, how presses continue to reaffirm the board's role over time, and how they develop and maintain relationships with board members. Questions may include:- How are new members brought onto the editorial board?
- What materials are provided to board members at orientation or shared with board members during their tenure to explain their role?
- How does the format and the structure of the editorial board meeting allow the press to clarify the role of the editorial board?
- Outside of board meetings, do press staff build relationships with individual board members?
- What types of challenges have presses encountered in reminding board members of their charge? How have these challenges been successfully navigated, or how might they be more successfully navigated in the future?
