Thread by @claesdevreese

So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodbye.

For six years I had the honor and pleasure to be the Editor in Chief of Political Communication, our joint ICA/APSA @poli_com journal.

Time for a few reflections: the Musings of an Editor-Eject.

THREAD 🧵 [1/ ]

First, a number of sincere thanks are due. To the inaugural Political Communication Editor, mentor, inspirator: #DorisGraber. To the successive Editors: David Swanson, David Paletz, and Shanto Iyengar. To the dream team of Associate Editors (@JesperStromback, Tamir Sheafer, [2/

Kimberly Gross), to the Editorial Board, to authors, reviewers, and the T&F production team. And to the Editorial Assistant, now Dr Anna Brosius. Without @AnnaBrosius, no journal.

How is the journal doing? I believe well. Political communication scholarship is booming, [3/

the information ecology is changing, consumption patterns on the move, technology is developing fast, and the role of information in free and fair elections is at the center of many discussions. The journal has seen an increase in submissions over the past six years. [4/

We are increasing our number of issues from 4 to 6 per year, our acceptance rate is around 10%, and we try to expedite things as quickly as we can. Even during the #covid19 pandemic, while also allowing more time for authors and reviewers. The journal is well read [5/

(the number of article downloads is really booming) and it is well cited, as evidenced by our key citation metrics.

A few highlights of the past years: going online, the Forum, #OpenScience, Special Issues, Diversity, and Community.

It is hard to imagine by September 2020, [6/

but online advance access was one of the first features that was initiated back in 2014. Today, this is an unmissable part of the journal dynamic and one that allows for much earlier and quicker access to available knowledge. The backlog from online access [7/

to being in a paginated issue is about one year. Being online today also means early sharing via, for example, social media. The journal now lists Altmetrics, which refers to (social) media attention to our articles. We have also seen that works that are published #OpenAccess [8/

get up to six times more downloads. (By the way, check out @kesearles and @ykrupnikov’s work on using social media professionally.)

A second innovation was the decision to convert the at times too positive Book Review section into a new section, dubbed The Forum. [9/

With only a loose idea in our mind, Mike Wagner (@prowag) became the first Forum Editor. And what an unbelievable successful addition. Timely topics, top notch colleagues, reflective and provocative essays. You took on that space, Mike, and created a legacy. Thank you! [10/

A third change has been the steps we have taken towards #openscholarship #opemcomm and increased transparency in our research practices.We were relatively early adaptors to the Data Access & Research Transparency (DART) initiative, requesting publishing authors, in principle,[11/

to share access to their data and data treatment files. This was a guiding principle, never a dogmatic choice and we worked with different author teams to tailor-make solutions, sometimes involving access to interview guides, sometimes to partial data, [12/

sometimes to in-company verification, but most of the times to full sharing. We later adopted the voluntary opt-in #OpenScience Badges for Open Data, Open Materials, and Preregistered studies. We were one of the first communication journals to do this. [13/

The practice is expanding & will become a standard option for e.g. all @icahdq journals. A fourth highlight of the past years has been the annual call for Special Issues or symposia in the journal. This has led to a wonderful list, I thank all the special issue guest editors [14/

for their contribution to the journal: @kocmichalska, @DrDGL, @LeticiaBode, @ekvraga, @ykrupnikov, @kesearles, @dfreelon & @cfwell , and an almost forthcoming special issue by @Yannis_Theo and @ajungherr. In addition to the full blown special issues, we also occasionally [15/

offered a curated selection of free online access to articles around a specific theme, such as the current access to articles on US media and politics in the run up to the 2020 elections.

A fifth point I want to highlight is diversity. [16/

Moving the editorial office and editorship to @UvA_ASCoR was the first time the journal would be edited outside the US. When composing the editorial board back in 2014, the board obtained a 50-50% gender balance, balanced representation from both political science [17/

and communication (our APSA and ICA communities), and some variation in terms of geography (albeit still with a very strong US and Europe bias). In furthering diversity, we have included this language in our submission and review guidelines: [18/

“The journal encourages submitting authors (and reviewers) to consider the composition of the cited authors or suggested works with respect to gender and minority representation. The journal encourages the use of e.g. the (searchable by topic/expert) @womenalsoknow and [19/

@POCalsoknow data bases.” Thanks to @ProfBoydstun for pushing and supporting our thinking in this space. More can and should be done but these were meaningful initial steps.

As a journal, we are at the receiving end of topical diversity, in that our profile is determined by [20/

the focus of the research we receive. In preparation of this reflection we pulled some data on the submissions in the past six years: More than 40% of submissions come from the US. European countries like Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, and Belgium follow. [21/

We receive few manuscripts from the remaining continents. This is reflected in the areas studied: almost 60% of published manuscripts include the US, 30% EU countries, almost 10% Asia. The most popular methods of submitted studies were content analyses (of all kinds), [22/

experiments and surveys. Substantively, the articles focus on topics at the intersection of politics and the media; most commonly, elections and voting, election campaigns, advertising and persuasion, media effects, public opinion, news, framing, social media and networks, [23/

mis- and disinformation, political parties, partisanship and partisan media, and political participation (see keyword cloud).

A sixth and final point: Community. The past years were marked by discussions about the peer review system. It often feels broken, [24/

it feels like there are too many Reviewer 2’s out there. I don’t consider the system fundamentally broken, but it is surely under pressure. The publish or perish environment is real and as an editor you feel the responsibility. [25/25] [END THREAD 1]

Rejecting 90% of incoming work is not nice. As former #IJPP Editor colleague @rasmus_kleis worded it ‘As an Editor, you don’t end up getting more Christmas Cards’.

Our subfield has seen the opportunity to publish increase, with journals focusing on journalism and [THREAD 2: 1/

technology, or mainstream political and communication science journals offering ample opportunity to submit political communication scholarship. The good news is that this expansion in other journals has gone hand in hand with a strengthening of our own journal. [2/

With more scholarship, more journals, and a publish or perish reality, we also face more reviewing. It is increasingly hard to get a sufficient number of reviewers. As a journal, we are lucky to tap into a committed and engaged community which is willing to review. [3/

As an author, never forget that every time you submit an article you should accept to review about two to three pieces. Only this way is the system kept in balance. In the absence of an alternative, keeping a system under pressure operational is the best shot we have. [4/

When reviewing, be candid, but also constructive and helpful. Emphasize what is good and can be improved, not only what you don’t like. Be Reviewer 1. Also, in that regard, I believe we are well off as a journal because we have a ‘critical-constructive-committed’ pool [5/

of reviewers (most of the times, you know who you are if you don’t feel well represented by this description!). In sum, it all boils down to the quality of the community which is behind a journal. And in the ICA-APSA @poli_com divisions and their vicinity I believe [6/

we have a really strong community that have continuously contributed to making the journal what it is today. From that community comes the journal’s next editor, the fabulous @LawrenceRegina, starting September 9. I wish you and the journal all the best. [7/

We live in too interesting times. Our scholarship touches on the very quality of democratic processes.

Political Communication @poli_com is our home for this type of scholarship.

It was an honor to be a part of the journal’s journey.

Apologies for the rant. [END 8/8 🧵 #2]