In an editorial ending their tenure as editor of Critical Studies in Media Communication, Steiner (2007) warned of the scourge of journal proliferation, invoking a concern that increasingly, these new journals mostly benefit individual careers and publishing house profits. Meanwhile the “just-planted crop of manuscripts is generally bringing diminishing returns to the field” (p. 384) because we are publishing far more than we can read, evaluate, integrate, and engage. Steiner is hardly alone in her critique. Others call out the invisible labor of editorial stewardship, showing for example how inefficient systems not only exploit scholars (Chalmers & Solomon, 2022) but can leave lasting damage on careers (Teixeira de Silva & Dobránszki, 2016). Some point to the scourge of predatory publishing (Yamada & Teixeira de Silva, 2025). A quick database query of these and related claims will quickly leave the reader with pages of provocative editorial discussions and solutions that—in combination with our collective and individual experiences—all beg the question: Why is the International Communication Association launching yet another journal?
Nicholas David Bowman (Thu,) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context: