The Competition for Journal Space among Referees, Editors, and Other Authors and Its Influence on Journals' Impact Factors

A new approach to study competition for journals’ space in academic publication is introduced. It compares the use of a given journal by two kinds of authors: Journal-related authors and other authors. Journal-related authors are those who are related in some way with the journal, either because they act as externa1 referees or because they are editors on the journal. To investigate journal use by journal-related authors, 18 educational psychology joumals were studied and the articles they published were counted during a 2-year period. Journal use by journal-related or other authors is measured by indicators which give the number and percentage of journal-related authors, number and percentage of articles authored or co-authored by journal-related authors, journal pages used, and mean number of pages from articles authored or co-authored by journal-related authors. The data show that journal use by journal-related authors varies. Thus, the percentage of journal-related authors ranges from 1.28 to 33.33% depending on the journal. The percentage of articles authored or co-authored by journal-related authors ranges from 2.33 to 57.89% of the total, with seven journal-related authors being authors or co-authors of five or more articles in the journals on which they serve. In three journals, the mean number of pages from articles authored or co-authored by journal-related authors was higher than that from articles authored by other authors. Finally, there is a positive relationship between the use of journals by journalrelated authors and impact factor of journals.