From Gatekeeping to Guidance: Building Fair and Reflective Editorial Practices

Abstract

Editorial work carries immense responsibility, especially given the considerable power editors hold to select or reject contributions at nearly every stage of the editorial process. 

As editors of a scientific Scandinavian literature journal, we are constantly confronted with challenging questions such as: How do we decide which articles to desk-reject and which to forward for peer-review within a small research community like that of Nordic literature? How do we navigate the reality that peer review remains an invisible, unpaid form of academic labor? How do we select books for review without allowing personal preferences or connections to influence our choices? How can we promote diversity – both in terms of topics and contributors – when we depend on a limited pool of submissions, many of which are rejected early in the process due to quality concerns? How do we position ourselves in relation to AI as a new "actor" in the academic sphere? And, as an all-female editorial team, how does gender matter in our editorial practice?

These are just a few of the challenges we have encountered since taking on editorial responsibility for Edda – Nordisk Tidsskrift for Litteraturforskning in January 2025. Our goal has been to approach this work with as much transparency, fairness, and inclusivity as possible, while upholding the high scholarly standards for which the journal is known.

In our 90-minute workshop, we invite you to take part in an interactive discussion on how we, as a community of editorial practitioners, can collectively address these challenges and explore potential solutions.

We will also provide practical insights into the strategies we have developed, and continue to refine, in response to these challenges. Topics include how we integrate editorial practice with radical self-reflection, how we navigate conflicts of interest and bias, and how we are reimagining our collaboration with authors and reviewers by offering guidance within a dynamic process and structure, rather than acting as gatekeepers within a fixed, hierarchical setting.