The Importance of the Journal's Reviewers

摘要

In a public letter prominent geographer and editor, Nigel Thrift (2011), observes the growing problem of the reluctance of academics to review submissions for publication in journals. Thrift guesses at three explanations for this reluctance: the proliferation of journals, competing requests from research bodies to review funding applications, and the burden of workload in universities more generally. Thrift's note refers us to an editorial in Environment and Planning D by Stuart Elden (2008). Both Elden and Thrift emphasise the importance of reciprocity to the survival of academic journals: that receiving the benefits of being published in a peer-reviewed journal requires agreement to act as a reviewer. Elden translates this duty into a 'rule' that academics should review three times as many papers as they submit.