Benefits of Serving on the American Journal of Evaluation (and Other) Editorial Boards
My name is Thomas Archibald (Executive Director of the Center for International Research, Education, and Development and Associate Professor in the Department of Agricultural, Leadership, and Community Education at Virginia Tech). As part of my efforts to serve the field of evaluation, I have a handful of roles with evaluation journals, including on the Editorial Board of the American Journal of Evaluation (AJE). I’ve experienced the benefits of such roles, and I’m happy to share some related insights with you, regrouped into three themes: (1) serving, (2) learning, and (3) shaping. But first, what does editorial board service entail?
In a nutshell, serving on the editorial board involves doing more frequent peer review of manuscripts and contributing thought leadership to the journal in a variety of ways when needed. For AJE, we expect editorial board members to be available to review at least two manuscripts per year, be willing to serve as guest Associate Editor if needed, and participate in annual discussions of journal content, quality, priorities, and direction.
Serving. First, I want to thank everyone who currently serves the field of evaluation, and encourage those of you who are not to seriously consider it. There are myriad ways, beyond serving on an editorial board, such as: reviewing for journals; serving a Topical Interest Group (TIG); volunteering across a wide array or roles with AEA (a list of opportunities is available here); getting involved in your Local Affiliate; or joining international initiatives like Eval4Action. Regarding serving via journals, I want to make special mention of reviewing. I still remember the first time I was invited to review for a journal, which was AJE. The request was forwarded to me by an elder in the field, and I immediately felt inadequate and poorly equipped for the task, since I had barely published anything myself at that point. But with encouragement and guidance, I did the review, which was a key moment in helping me understand the (often murky) world of publishing, which this two-week series of aea365 posts does a great demystifying! For instance, check out the post by AJE Managing Editor Shannon Hitchcock on why and how to be a journal reviewer. For me, serving on the editorial board of AJE and other journals is one more way of ensuring I am giving back to the association and field that has given me so much.
Learning. Doing the reviews and participating in conversations as an editorial board member has taught me so much. I appreciate having a broader and deeper view of what people are writing about in our field, and getting a ‘front-row seat’ to emerging research and discourse in evaluation. I am also exposed to more writing styles and types of manuscripts, which helps me hone my craft as a writer. Doing reviews requires a careful reading and thoughtful framing of feedback—now that I’ve done so many reviews, I feel much better at giving constructive feedback across a variety of contexts (hopefully something my students appreciate!)
Shaping. Editorial board service provides numerous avenues to help shape the field. For instance, giving constructive, kind reviews is one way to help make scholarly publishing less harsh and mean. Participating in conversations about the journal’s quality and direction allows space to challenge norms in publishing, and rethink issues of equity and inclusion and broadening participation. Publishing in evaluation is for everyone, and being an editorial board member lets you help make that happen!
Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this aea365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the aea365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an aea365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to aea365@eval.org . aea365 is sponsored by the American Evaluation Association and provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators. The views and opinions expressed on the AEA365 blog are solely those of the original authors and other contributors. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of the American Evaluation Association, and/or any/all contributors to this site.