Examples
Worked examples
- Is an instance
A journal's published masthead listing an editor-in-chief, several associate editors each responsible for a subject area or manuscript type, and 20-40 board members with institutional affiliations — the standard structure DOAJ and similar directories check for as evidence of real editorial governance (DOAJ's application guide sets a minimum of five qualified members as an inclusion threshold).
- Is an instance
An editorial board voting on or ratifying a policy change, such as adopting a new data-availability requirement or a COPE-aligned authorship-dispute procedure — an example of the board's policy-setting function, distinct from any individual manuscript decision.
Counter-examples
Looks similar, but isn't
- Not an instance
A single external peer reviewer credited for reviewing one manuscript is not an editorial board member by virtue of that review alone — see 'editorial contribution' for the credit/recognition angle on that distinct role.
- Not an instance
An informal, undisclosed, or unverifiable list of names on a journal website, with no evidence of active governance activity, does not satisfy the 'identifiable editorial board' criterion that indexing bodies like DOAJ apply — this is one of the red flags used to distinguish a legitimate journal from a predatory or low-quality one.
Editorial commentary
What an editorial board does
A journal’s editorial board is its governance body: the group responsible for setting editorial policy, upholding publication ethics and peer-review integrity, and making or ratifying final accept/reject decisions on submissions. This is distinct from performing routine external peer review of individual manuscripts, which is typically delegated to invited subject-matter reviewers selected per submission — sometimes drawn from the board, but not limited to it. In practice, an editorial board’s authority covers scope and aims, editorial policy changes (for example, adopting a new data-availability or authorship-dispute policy), oversight of the peer-review process itself, and handling of ethics cases such as suspected misconduct or authorship disputes, often guided by frameworks such as the peer-review process the board oversees rather than personally executes.
Typical composition
Editorial board structures vary by journal and publisher, but a common pattern is: an editor-in-chief (or co-editors-in-chief) with overall responsibility for the journal; one or more associate, section, or deputy editors, each typically responsible for a subject area, manuscript type, or stage of the workflow; and a wider roster of board members, often listed with institutional affiliations on the journal’s masthead. Some journals add a separate advisory board layer with a more consultative, less operational role. The exact titles and reporting lines differ across publishers, but the underlying division — a small operational leadership group plus a broader oversight roster — is common across most reputable journals.
How editorial boards relate to peer review
The editorial board sets and oversees the peer-review process — for example, deciding how many reviewers a submission requires, how conflicts of interest are managed, and how disputes between reviewers are resolved — but individual manuscripts are usually assigned to invited external reviewers rather than reviewed directly by the full board. An editor (often an associate editor or the editor-in-chief) typically makes the final decision after weighing reviewer reports, but that decision-making authority is a board governance function, separate from the reviewers’ evaluative role. This distinction matters for anyone crediting contributions to a published work: reviewing a single manuscript does not by itself make someone an editorial board member, and serving on a board does not by itself count as having reviewed a given paper — see editorial contribution for how editorial work is recognized and credited.
Editorial board composition as a quality signal
Because a functioning editorial board is core evidence of real editorial oversight, indexing and vetting bodies use board composition as a quality check. The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), for instance, sets a minimum of five qualified editorial board members as part of its inclusion criteria for journal applications, and expects that board to be identifiable — named individuals with verifiable affiliations, not just a list of names with no evidence of active governance activity. The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), founded in 1997 by a group of UK medical journal editors, publishes editor-facing guidance that similarly frames editors and editorial boards as responsible for editorial policy and integrity oversight, including handling suspected research or publication misconduct. A journal with no identifiable editorial board, or with a board that cannot be verified, is treated as a red flag by directories, librarians, and researchers assessing journal legitimacy — it is one of several signals used to distinguish reputable journals from predatory or low-quality ones.
Related concepts
- Editorial contribution — how editorial work is recognized and credited, as distinct from board membership itself.
- Geographic editorial diversity — a representation lens on who sits on editorial boards.
- AI in editorial decisions — how automated tools intersect with editorial board decision-making.
- Academic journal — the publication an editorial board governs.
- DOAJ — the directory whose inclusion criteria reference editorial board composition.
Machine-readable encodings
Use in your systems
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