The complicated terrain of editorial peer review in Anglocentricglobal academic publishing

Abstract The purpose of editorial peer review is to maintain and improve academic journal quality while its execution depends on journal status and location in the global academic publishing system. Significant research on authors’ publishing experiences has been conducted in ERPP. However, empirical research on the perspectives of multilingual editors beyond the Anglophone center of scholarly publishing is an under-researched area. Therefore, to better understand editors’ challenges and roles and investigate pedagogical activity at journals in the “semi-periphery,” five English-medium national journals in Taiwan were investigated. Data from qualitative interviews with five editors were triangulated with journal and database data. A taxonomy of editor challenges and roles along journal development stages is presented. Results show that the type and intensity of editors’ challenges shift with publication development. Oversight entities imposing Anglophone center norms have standardized peer review practices enabling journal mobility. However, collisions between those mechanisms and journal conditions can frustrate editors and limit their ability to follow the standards, let alone execute explicit pedagogical activities. This study reveals the complicated terrain for editors beyond the Anglophone center and provides insights into the intersection of journal development and editor roles cultivated through movement along the global academic continuum toward mobility.