Spotlight on Journals: Health Care for Women International

• How and when did you become Editor of the journal?

I have long been affiliated with Health Care for Women International, as an author and reviewer. The previous Editor, Phyllis Noerager Stern, recruited help from the founding members of the International Council on Women's Health Issues (ICOWHI), an interdisciplinary organization whose Board of Directors is committed to improving women's health through mentoring, scholarship and practice. I served as Associate Editor with Phyllis for several years and thus I was mentored for the position of Editor-in-Chief which I assumed in 2002, Volume 23.

• What are the main achievements of the journal since you took over?

Since I became Editor, we have increased the rigour of our peer review process even though the issues per volume increased from 8 to 12 per year. Citations to our journal have increased and thus Thompson Reuters Journal Citation Report notes our impact factor has also increased. Our journal is now much more interdisciplinary, and I am particularly proud of the many articles we have been publishing by public health scholars.

• Which three factors have contributed most to the journal's success?

  1. Affiliation with the ICOWHI. Members of the Editorial Board for Health Care for Women International are members of ICOWHI. Members of ICOWHI and the Health Care for Women International Editorial Board also serve on the Boards of Directors for other international organizations that reflect their disciplinary expertise. They encourage members of these other organizations to submit their work to Health Care for Women International when it is advantageous that their work be read by an interdisciplinary audience.

  2. All members of our Editorial Board are committed to fostering scholarship by mentoring new scholars and women's health practitioners. Most members are academicians. Thus we are able to mentor peer reviewers as well as future authors. Our reviewers are dedicated to providing constructive comments, often encouraging authors to revise and resubmit an improved manuscript. Members of the Editorial Board travel throughout the globe conducting collaborative evidence-based research, speaking about women's health issues and Health Care for Women International.

  3. As Editor-in-Chief, I offer workshops on tips for publishing success at international meetings, not only on behalf of Health Care for Women International, but also about how to select the right journal for a particular piece of scholarship. As Editor, I have also been working to mentor fellows of the African Population and Health Research Center in their scientific writing efforts. This has fostered my efforts to recruit articles and reviewers from the African continent. I have also been able to create a three-issue collection of articles on women's health issues in Africa with the help of my Guest Co-Editor for this collection, Chimaraoke Izugbara.

• What are the biggest challenges facing your journal today?

The greatest challenge is that the world of scholarship is rapidly changing. It is difficult to assess the impact of the plethora of journals that have emerged in association with the open-access movement. While many editors of such journals have established a decent peer-review process, others have not. A proportion of scholars rely on sources such as the Thompson Reuters Journal Citation Report to rank journal impact, while others are more concerned with immediate comments about research using social media sites such as Twitter.

Another challenge is that with online submissions, we tend to receive more submissions than we can review in a timely manner. Reviewers tend to serve in this capacity for more than one journal and are stretched beyond their capacity. Few are willing to review more than a single submission in a given year. While we are able to recruit reviewers, it is difficult to retain reviewers when a particular manuscript needs review for more than one round of revisions.

• If you could give a word of advice to a new journal Editor, what would it be?

My advice is to carefully script your statement on the aims and scope of your journal. This statement needs to be reviewed annually. Thus, reviewing the aims and scope of a journal is a process and not something that is over after a single review. This review process is required so that those who do marketing for Taylor & Francis can help you to reach your potential audience. Generally you should be considering who currently reads your journal and whether you wish to diversify that audience.

• What is the strangest thing that has happened to you as Editor of the journal?

I have no answer to this question, but I would like to note that I have been surprised by opportunities that have emerged for me personally in association with my position as editor.

• What do you hope the journal will achieve in the next five years?

I hope that Health Care for Women International will become even more interdisciplinary. Perhaps there will be spin-off journals focusing on research generated from each continent.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Eleanor Krassen Covan

Dr Eleanor Krassen Covan is Professor Emerita of Gerontology at University of North Carolina Wilmington and a consultant to the African Population and Health Research Center where she mentors fellows in scientific writing. She also serves on the Board of Directors of the International Council on Women's Health Issues (ICOWHI).