Becoming an Officer of the JSCE

Q. How are the co-editors of the JSCE chosen?
A. A task force is appointed by the Board of the SCE to solicit nominations and interview candidates. Their recommendation is voted upon by the Board of Directors and sent to the membership for approval during the annual business meeting. The usual term of office for editors of the JSCE is five years.

Q. Who serves on the JSCE Editorial Board and what do they do?
A. The Editorial Board is made up of members of the SCE. Customarily, those who are invited to serve on the Editorial Board are not holding other offices in the SCE. Thus, Editorial Board members are appointed by the co-editors of the journal in consultation with the Executive Director of the SCE. Members of the Editorial Board are usually asked to referee three papers and report on audience response to them at the annual meeting. When needed, they also write at least one book review a year for the journal and advise the editors on policy matters at the Board meeting immediately following the conclusion of the annual meeting. The normal term of service on the JSCE Editorial Board is three years. At present four new members are appointed to the Editorial Board each year. An effort is made to have at least one member of the SJE and one member of the SSME on the Board at all times.

Q. If I am interested in serving on the JSCE Editorial Board, whom should I contact?
A. Nominees are solicited from current members of the Editorial Board each year, so you may contact any member of the Editorial Board in this regard. Or you may nominate yourself (or others) directly by sending your suggestion(s) to the co-editors of the JSCE. All such nominations are welcome; however, not all requests can be honored.

Q. What do the editors consider when selecting members of the Editorial Board for the JSCE?
  A. The editors base their selections on several factors. First, members of the Editorial Board must be full members of the SCE or SJE. Second, they must have provided particularly incisive and constructive assessments of the submissions to the JSCE they have evaluated as volunteer referees. Third, they must bring to the Board an area of expertise and a perspective needed therein.

Q. How is the Book Review Editor chosen? What are his/her responsibilities?
A. Since the creation of the position of Book Review Editor coincided with the appointment of the co-editors, no formal mechanism is in place to guide the choice of Book Review Editor. With the next round of a search for co-editors of the JSCE, the Task Force charged with that search will look for nominations and interview for the position of the Book Review Editor. It is the Book Review Editor’s responsibility to receive books written by members of the SCE or recommended by an Interest and/or Working Group, to find members to review the books received, to receive and edit those reviews, and to forward them to the co-editor responsible for production of the manuscript.