NCA and its journal publisher, Taylor & Francis (T&F), have agreed to begin jointly working to train social science journal reviewers outside the United States and other large primarily English-speaking countries. The aim is to internationalize the pool of potential manuscript reviewers.
In February, Taylor & Francis and NCA will hold online training sessions for communication scholars in Kenya and other African countries, with sessions led by current or former NCA editors, African scholars, and Taylor & Francis (its reviewer trainer, Victoria Babbit, is Director of Researcher Development and Outreach). The NCA and Taylor & Francis planned training for reviewers in Africa will be only one among many held around the world in 2024 and beyond.
In T&F’s 2022 annual report to the NCA, only 8% of NCA journals’ editorial board members were outside the United States, but 28% of manuscripts submitted to NCA journals had first authors outside the United States. At the same time, 53% of NCA journal article downloads tracked by Taylor & Francis are outside the U.S. showing that NCA journals have broad and deep use by scholars and others outside the country.