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Who are the gatekeepers of economics? Geographic diversity, gender composition, and interlocking editorship of journal boards

Alberto Baccini, Cristina Re

TL;DR

The paper analyzes gatekeeping in economics by constructing a large-scale editorial-board database for 1,516 EconLit journals (2019), capturing geographic, institutional, and gender patterns and detailing interlocking editorship networks. Using social-network analysis, it reveals a US- and male-dominated editorial landscape with strong homophily and centralized power, and shows that editorial leaders shape board composition and journal connections, potentially reinforcing prestige-based hierarchies. The work demonstrates high structural similarity across complete, leader-free, and leader-involved interlocking networks, while highlighting risks to innovation and the need for policies—such as turnover and diversity guidelines—to promote broader representation and pluralism in economic publishing.

Abstract

This study investigates the role of editorial board members as gatekeepers in science, creating and utilizing a database of 1,516 active economics journals in 2019, which includes more than 44,000 scholars from over 6,000 institutions and 142 countries. The composition of these editorial boards is explored in terms of geographic affiliation, institutional affiliation, and gender. Results highlight that the academic publishing environment is primarily governed by men affiliated with elite universities in the United States. The study further explores social similarities among journals using a network analysis perspective based on interlocking editorship. Comparison of networks generated by all scholars, editorial leaders, and non-editorial leaders reveals significant structural similarities and associations among clusters of journals. These results indicate that links between pairs of journals tend to be redundant, and this can be interpreted in terms of social and intellectual homophily within each board, and between boards of journals belonging to the same cluster. Finally, the analysis of the most central journals and scholars in the networks suggests that journals probably adopt 'strategic decisions' in the selection of the editorial board members. The documented high concentration of editorial power poses a serious risk to innovative research in economics.

Who are the gatekeepers of economics? Geographic diversity, gender composition, and interlocking editorship of journal boards

TL;DR

The paper analyzes gatekeeping in economics by constructing a large-scale editorial-board database for 1,516 EconLit journals (2019), capturing geographic, institutional, and gender patterns and detailing interlocking editorship networks. Using social-network analysis, it reveals a US- and male-dominated editorial landscape with strong homophily and centralized power, and shows that editorial leaders shape board composition and journal connections, potentially reinforcing prestige-based hierarchies. The work demonstrates high structural similarity across complete, leader-free, and leader-involved interlocking networks, while highlighting risks to innovation and the need for policies—such as turnover and diversity guidelines—to promote broader representation and pluralism in economic publishing.

Abstract

This study investigates the role of editorial board members as gatekeepers in science, creating and utilizing a database of 1,516 active economics journals in 2019, which includes more than 44,000 scholars from over 6,000 institutions and 142 countries. The composition of these editorial boards is explored in terms of geographic affiliation, institutional affiliation, and gender. Results highlight that the academic publishing environment is primarily governed by men affiliated with elite universities in the United States. The study further explores social similarities among journals using a network analysis perspective based on interlocking editorship. Comparison of networks generated by all scholars, editorial leaders, and non-editorial leaders reveals significant structural similarities and associations among clusters of journals. These results indicate that links between pairs of journals tend to be redundant, and this can be interpreted in terms of social and intellectual homophily within each board, and between boards of journals belonging to the same cluster. Finally, the analysis of the most central journals and scholars in the networks suggests that journals probably adopt 'strategic decisions' in the selection of the editorial board members. The documented high concentration of editorial power poses a serious risk to innovative research in economics.
Paper Structure (11 sections, 1 equation, 5 figures, 18 tables)

This paper contains 11 sections, 1 equation, 5 figures, 18 tables.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Literature review
  3. Data and research questions
  4. Geographic distribution
  5. Institutional distribution
  6. Gender composition
  7. Interlocking Editorship Networks
  8. Social and intellectual similarities in the interlocking editorship network of journals
  9. The most central journals in the interlocking editorship network
  10. Editorial leaders: prestige or editorial power?
  11. Conclusions and policy recommendations

Figures (5)

  • Figure 1: Distribution of scholars according to the number of seats held in the editorial boards of economics journals.
  • Figure 2: Distribution of economics journals according to their degree in the interlocking editorship network.
  • Figure 3: Distribution of economics journals according to their degree in the interlocking editorship network built by considering only female scholars.
  • Figure 4: Degree distribution of scholars who serve as editorial leader in at least one economics journal. "Degree" refers to the number of links to other scholars who also serve as editorial leader in at least one economics journal.
  • Figure 5: Degree distribution of female scholars who serve as editorial leader in at least one economics journal. "Degree" refers to the number of links to other female scholars who also serve as editorial leader in at least one economics journal.