Admittedly, I labored under the illusion that editors wanted to turn out quality journals at a fast enough rate to be relevant to the national conversation longer than most people.
But that's gone now.
I also sometimes encounter editors who do not seem to care.
I wonder how that can happen. It totally ruins the journal.
Are they not getting paid? Is there really a complete absence of any incentives to do their work well?
But then again, counterexamples exist, too. Some editors do a great work.
They're getting paid to make the trains run, They don't get paid more because they publish your article which five or ten years later ends up getting a good number of cites,
I also sometimes encounter editors who do not seem to care.
I wonder how that can happen. It totally ruins the journal.
Are they not getting paid? Is there really a complete absence of any incentives to do their work well?
But then again, counterexamples exist, too. Some editors do a great work.
Editors want to get ahead by editing journals. If they want to check a service box, then the content of the journal is irrelevant. If they want prestige, they publish things already by prestigeous people. If they want to put down people they don't like or disagree with, they'll reject perfectly reasonable submissions or hold them up for as long as possible. There aren't that many that are out to advance the discipline.
Well, they think that publishing things they agree with IS advancing the discipline. Most people don't think they're wrong, by definition. This is mitigated by political concerns, but it is what it is. Even when people acknowledge a range of views and different types of good work, not everyone agrees what is included.
I also know people who've been editors just for the $ and the course(s) off. That's pretty lame, but they're out there.
Editors want to get ahead by editing journals. If they want to check a service box, then the content of the journal is irrelevant. If they want prestige, they publish things already by prestigeous people. If they want to put down people they don't like or disagree with, they'll reject perfectly reasonable submissions or hold them up for as long as possible. There aren't that many that are out to advance the discipline.