Room for optimism : Editor–reviewer interaction networks reveal positive outcomes of enhanced board diversity

Nuñez, Martin A. and Vitali, Agustin and Marini, Lorenzo and Gordon, Rowena and Groves, Lydia and Rader, Romina and Macinnis‐Ng, Cate and Suryawanshi, Kulbhushansingh and Siqueira, Tadeu and Barlow, Jos (2026) Room for optimism : Editor–reviewer interaction networks reveal positive outcomes of enhanced board diversity. Journal of Applied Ecology, 63 (1): e70254. ISSN 0021-8901

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Abstract

Scientific publishing has been historically dominated by a limited number of countries and demographics. Here we examine whether diversification of the editorial board of Journal of Applied Ecology propagates to its reviewer community. Using data from 2004, 2014 and 2024, we constructed tripartite networks linking senior editors, associate editors and reviewers and quantified gender ratios, geographic diversity and network modularity. We also fitted generalized linear mixed models to test whether associate editors preferentially invited reviewers of the same gender or region and whether these patterns changed over time. As associate editors became more gender‐balanced and geographically diverse, reviewer diversity increased: the reviewer gender ratio (number of men divided by number of women) halved, the number of countries represented rose from 33 to 52, and the Simpson's index for geographic diversity increased from 0.60 to 0.75. Network modularity and the number of smaller modules increased, indicating a more segmented and specialized editor–reviewer structure. Men editors showed a declining tendency to invite men reviewers, while women increasingly invited women; only Western European editors showed significant regional homophily, although effect sizes were small. Overall, increased diversity among associate editors was associated with a more globally representative, structurally complex reviewer network. Synthesis and applications . Our results show that editorial diversification is a practical lever for making peer review more inclusive and better aligned with the global distribution of ecological research. These changes make the publication process fairer and improve the quality and global impact of the papers published.