The email arrives on a Tuesday, addressed to "Dear Esteemed Professor": the editorial board of a journal you have half-heard of would be honoured to have you. It is flattering, and it costs nothing.
What it is, is a loan: your name, your institution and your specialty, lent to an operation whose practices you have not seen, with no end date. Giving it takes one click; getting it back can take months.
So send twelve questions before you reply yes.
A masthead listing is a loan with no agreed end date
An editorial board page is one of the first things a reader checks when deciding whether a journal is real. The journal gets a durable asset to display indefinitely; you get a CV line with no term, no defined duties and no stated way out.
Why a name is harder to remove than it was to add
Adding you is one database row. Removing you is distributed, and even a willing publisher fixes only the part it controls.
- Web archives keep the page as it was for years, and a search engine shows the old text until it recrawls.
- PDF mastheads in published issues cannot be edited without disturbing the version of record.
- Where a board page was deposited as a citable item, that record is already copied downstream.
- Directories and scraped listings republish board pages, and some have no monitored contact address.
Send this twelve-question reply before you accept anything
Every question is about lending your name, not about the quality of the journal.
Dear [name],
Thank you for the invitation. Before I can consider it, please confirm the following in writing:
- What is the term, and on what date does it end?
- How many manuscripts a year do you expect me to handle?
- Do I take decisions, or advise a handling editor who decides?
- Will my photograph, affiliation, country and ORCID iD be published, and where?
- Will my name appear on any public page before I confirm in writing?
- Am I expected to submit my own papers, or to solicit papers from colleagues?
- Am I expected to bring, guest-edit or fund a special issue?
- Is any fee, honorarium or discount on charges attached, and to whom?
- Who is currently on the board, and may I see the live list?
- Which named person handles removal requests, and at which address?
- How quickly is a name removed after a written request, and from where — site, PDF mastheads, deposited metadata?
- May I have all of this in one email I can keep?
Please treat this as a request for information and not as an acceptance.
Yours sincerely, [name, affiliation, ORCID iD]
Grade the reply you get back
A publisher running a real board answers all twelve from documents it holds.
| Question | Serious answer | Non-answer |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Term | A date, or how to leave | "The board is ongoing" |
| 2. Workload | A range, or "it varies" | "Only when you are free" |
| 3. Decide or advise | Who signs the decision | "You will be involved" |
| 4. What is published | Exact fields, and where | Your profile pasted back |
| 5. Listing before consent | "Nothing until you confirm" | Your name already live |
| 6. Submitting or soliciting | "Neither is expected" | "We await your contributions" |
| 7. Special issue | "No, a separate invitation" | A proposal form attached |
| 8. Money | "None, either direction" | A discount on your charges |
| 9. Board list | A link, before you commit | "Being updated" |
| 10. Removals contact | An address someone answers | A no-reply address |
| 11. Removal mechanism | What can change, what cannot | "Any time", no mechanism |
| 12. One email | One email, sent | Three, none quotable |
Four expectations that should never be attached to a board seat
- Submitting your own papers. A seat conditional on your manuscripts is a purchase.
- Soliciting papers from colleagues. A recruitment target turns your network into a mailing list.
- Bringing, guest-editing or funding a special issue. Guest editing is legitimate, but a separate invitation — see special issues and guest editors.
- Paying anything, or being paid to accept. Money at appointment buys your name.
Your name is listed and you never agreed: the removal letter
Screenshot every page where your name appears, dated, then send this.
Dear Editorial Office,
My name appears as a member of the editorial board of [journal] at these URLs: [list them]. I have not given written agreement to serve on this board.
Please remove my name, affiliation, photograph and ORCID iD from the journal website, from any PDF masthead where they appear, and from any metadata you have deposited with third parties or supplied to directories. Please confirm in writing, item by item, when each has been done.
If I have not received that confirmation by [date], I will raise the matter through [the publisher's stated complaints route] and inform my institution.
Yours sincerely, [name, affiliation, ORCID iD]
If you once agreed and now wish to resign, replace the second paragraph: "I agreed to serve on [date] and am resigning with effect from [date]. Please remove my name from the website and from any forthcoming issue."
If it is ignored, open all of these at once rather than one at a time: the complaints route you named; the directories that republish the listing; your research office; and COPE, if the publisher is genuinely a member — it takes complaints that a member has not followed the Core Practices, after the publisher's own route. A publisher that merely claims to follow them is not a member and cannot be reported there.
Directive's own answers to all twelve, gaps included
The publisher writing this should sit the same test. Every cell is marked written policy, with a link to the live page, or current practice, not yet written policy. Three carry both, because part is written down and part is not.
| Question | Our answer |
|---|---|
| 1. Term and end date | No fixed term is published; we will not invent one. Resign in writing whenever you wish. Current practice, not yet written policy. |
| 2. Manuscripts a year | No quota is set; we will not quote a figure we cannot show you. Current practice, not yet written policy. |
| 3. Decide or advise | Reviewers advise, the handling editor decides, appeals go to the Editor-in-Chief — Peer Review Policy, written policy. Which board members handle which manuscripts: current practice, not yet written policy. |
| 4. What is published about you | Name, degrees, affiliation, country and ORCID iD where we hold them, on the board page and on your profile page, which also shows a biography and research interests if we hold them. No photograph is published. Current practice, not yet written policy. |
| 5. Listing before written consent | Plainly: a name can appear on our sites before written confirmation. Legacy boards were imported with agreement to serve not recorded, and no confirm-your-listing workflow exists yet. We are changing this. Current practice, not yet written policy. |
| 6. Submitting or soliciting | Neither is expected, and no decision depends on either. Current practice, not yet written policy. |
| 7. Special issue | No seat is conditional on bringing, guest-editing or funding one. Current practice, not yet written policy. |
| 8. Money in either direction | None, either way — current practice, not yet written policy. Written: submission is free, a charge falls due only on acceptance after peer review (Publication Charges); waivers are decided separately from editorial evaluation (Fee Waivers & Discounts). Written policy. |
| 9. The live board list | Public on each journal's site; ask the editorial office and we send it before you reply. Current practice, not yet written policy. |
| 10. Who handles removals | The editorial office, [email protected] — a shared address rather than a named individual. Current practice, not yet written policy. |
| 11. How removal works | We will not publish a turnaround we have not committed to. A written request is actioned on the site and in the metadata we control. Our written rule that a published article is never silently changed or deleted (Corrections, Retractions & Withdrawals, written policy) covers articles, not board listings, so removal from published files is current practice, not yet written policy. |
| 12. All of it in one email | Yes — these answers, gaps included, in one email you can keep. Current practice, not yet written policy. |
Nine of those twelve have no policy page behind them at all today, and the three that do are only part-covered. A verification programme using ORCID, ROR and OpenAlex is in progress; it confirms that a listed person exists, not that they agreed to serve — see how we verify a board member.
If you accept: what the role asks of you week to week
A real board seat is a small, regular working commitment. Expect manuscripts near the edge of your specialty; say so when one falls outside it, decline what you cannot judge, and name someone who can. Expect to declare conflicts and step aside. Keep the exit in view: resign in writing rather than letting a listing run on.
The work itself is set out in Editorial Policies and in running fair, ethical peer review for editors; to start with reviewing instead, Become a Reviewer is a shorter commitment. See also how to identify a predatory journal and what those metrics really mean.