Code4Lib Editorial Committee Introduction

How the Editorial Committee Functions

The Code4Lib Journal Editorial Committee works much as Code4Lib does: informally and collaboratively. One member of the Editorial Committee (EC) volunteers to be Coordinating Editor (ie managing editor) of a journal issue and is responsible for distributing the call for papers, communicating with potential authors, opening and closing editorial committee voting on submissions, and making sure that accepted articles have volunteer editors. For the duration of their tenure, the Coordinating Editor is generally responsible for any loose ends tying, and making sure everything proceeds smoothly, coordinating all of the rest of us.

Everyone on the EC may vote on article proposals as they come in. Voting is straightforward and recorded in the tracking spreadsheet. An article must have at least two 'yes' votes and more 'yes' votes than 'no' votes to be accepted. Once an article is accepted for publication, an EC member volunteers to take on editorial responsibility for that article and shepherds it from proposal to publication, acting as the journal's single point of contact with the author. Most Committee members take responsiblity for at least one article per issue, though the committee is large enough that there is some flexibility with editorial responsibility.

Editing an article includes making sure the article draft is submitted on time, distributing drafts to the full committee for comment, making editorial suggestions or recommendations to the author(s), tracking and enforcing submission deadlines, requesting full Editorial Committee approval of the final draft, and inputting the finished article into http://journal.code4lib.org.

Above all, the Editorial Committee is informal and egalitarian. Jump in with your opinion and ideas!

Article Tracking Spreadsheet

Articles, from proposal submission through to publication, are tracked using the C4LJ Article Tracking spreadsheet in Google Docs. This Google document is private; only Editorial Committee members may view or edit it. Proposal votes and tentative issue assignments for accepted articles are tracked in this spreadsheet.

Editorial Committee Discussion List

Most of the Editorial Committee's business is conducted via email on the C4LJ-Articles Google Group. This list is where we debate article submissions, volunteer to be editor or managing editor, discuss acceptance of articles, and take care of any other tasks in front of us.