Core Competences of Scientific Journal Editors: Proficiency in Open Science

Scientific research is a complex process involving data collection, data analysis, and dissemination of research findings through scholarly communication, such as publication in journals. In scholarly communication, the role of journal editors as gatekeepers is essential. Editorial appointments are often based on administrative duties, with faculty or department heads appointed as editors-in-chief, which can lead to a lack of editorial competence. This paper examines the core competencies required of journal editors to demonstrate editorial professionalism in the era of digital scholarship and open science. The study uses a questionnaire to collect data. A total of 79 responses were received from participants, including editors-in-chief and associate editors of Malaysian journals indexed in the WoS or Scopus databases. Most respondents gave positive responses in the four identified areas of core competencies. However, the lowest ratings were in areas related to open science, specifically open access, open peer review, and open data. The results are important for understanding editors' skills in open research. The findings would be helpful in developing training modules for scientific editors based on the identified core competencies.