The role of journal editors in long review times

Part of a short series addressing the issue of long review times, this track focuses on the role of the journal editor in the time it takes from submission to decision. I connect long review times to general issues of workload management. Since first publishing this post, the scope of control journal editors have has changed considerably. Authors still look to you to control this process but I highly recommend a recent piece published by The Scholarly Kitchen: An Editor's Perspective on "My Very Last Issue" (https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2025/01/15/guest-post-an-editors-perspective-on-my-very-last-issue/)Other tracks in this series include "The frustrations of peer review: Why is it taking so long?" and "How you, as a peer reviewer, can contribute to a better process"Read the post here: https://jovanevery.co.uk/role-journal-editors-long-review-times/For more content like this, sign up to the monthly newsletter: jovanevery.co.uk/newsletterFollow me on Twitter: twitter.com/JoVanEveryFind my Facebook Page here: facebook.com/JoVEAcademicCareerCoach Join the Academic Writing Studio: academicwritingstudio.co.ukFor more advice, support and perspectives like this, sign up to my free monthly newsletter: https://jovanevery.co.uk/newsletter To find out how short chunks of time can revolutionise your writing, take the FREE 15 Minute Writing Challenge course: https://jovanevery.co.uk/15-min-writing-challenge/ Or join the Academic Writing Studio community: https://academicwritingstudio.co.uk  Support me on KoFi here: https://ko-fi.com/jovanevery  I'm no longer on Twitter, but I'm on Bluesky here: https://bsky.app/profile/jovanevery.bsky.social Find me on Linked In here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jovanevery/  Or follow along on Facebook here: https://facebook.com/JoVEAcademicCareerCoach