Interlocking editorship. A network analysis of the links between economic journals

TL;DR

This paper uses network analysis to explore how shared editors link economic journals, revealing a compact network that reflects diverse perspectives within the economics research community.

Contribution

It introduces a novel network analysis approach to study interlocking editorship among economic journals, highlighting the structure and diversity of editorial connections.

Findings

Identified a compact network of interconnected journals.

Revealed multiple components indicating diverse perspectives.

Showed that shared editors influence editorial policy links.

Abstract

The exploratory analysis developed in this paper relies on the hypothesis that each editor possesses some power in the definition of the editorial policy of her journal. Consequently if the same scholar sits on the board of editors of two journals, those journals could have some common elements in their editorial policies. The proximity of the editorial policies of two scientific journals can be assessed by the number of common editors sitting on their boards. A database of all editors of ECONLIT journals is used. The structure of the network generated by interlocking editorship is explored by applying the instruments of network analysis. Evidences have been found of a compact network containing different components. This is interpreted as the result of a plurality of perspectives about the appropriate methods for the investigation of problems and the construction of theories within the domain of economics.