The price of popularity: Expanding EMAL to manage demand

Abstract

In 20 years as editor-in-chief of Educational Management, Administration and Leadership (EMAL), I have been able to observe the growth of our field from a privileged position. Over these two decades, interest in educational leadership has grown dramatically, notably in its expansion from its Anglo-Saxon roots to become a global phenomenon. EMAL bears witness to this expansion, with submissions from 44 countries in the past 12 months. While this growth is gratifying, it provides challenges in managing the journal. As submissions have increased, from around 80 a decade ago, to more than 500 in 2022, the Editorial Board has adopted several strategies to manage demand. Initially, we changed the number of issues per volume from four to six. This was followed by increasing the page extent of each issue. Subsequently, we made the criteria for acceptance more stringent, meaning that fewer submissions were published. Despite all these changes, the gap between acceptance and allocation to an issue has grown, meaning that papers might be available online-first for more than two years before they receive volume, issue and page number details. The Editorial Board and our publisher, Sage, have responded to this problem by increasing the number of articles in each issue from eight or nine to 12, beginning with this issue. Over time, we expect this change to reduce the backlog of accepted papers. Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy reading the additional articles. The first paper in this newly expanded issue, by Se Woong Lee and Xinyi Mao, provides a systematic review of the US literature on the recruitment and selection of school principals. As these authors note, there are challenges in recruiting sufficient well-qualified applicants in several countries, including the US. Following a systematic search strategy, they identified 64 studies for inclusion in the review. They highlight four main implications of their study. First, they note the lack of attention to minority principals in the literature, a significant issue as student populations are becoming more diverse. Second, women continue to be under-represented as principals, an issue in many other national contexts. The authors recommend mentoring to address these imbalances. Third, they point to working conditions, notably long hours, as a disincentive for potential principals and as a consideration influencing principal turnover. Finally, they point to the lack of research on hiring processes in the US, but this is also true of international research. High-quality preparation may contribute to providing a pool of good applicants for principalship positions. Gavin Murphy explores leadership preparation and career pathways for novice principals in Ireland. Drawing on interviews with 12 recently appointed principals of primary and postprimary schools, the author notes that principals feel that distributed leadership is working well in their schools. He comments on the importance of anticipatory socialisation and of the value of building leadership capacity, concluding that contextual issues are important in preparing successful principals. Editorial