Reflections on the Concept of Quality in Editorial Management

Abstract

This article takes the form of a theoretical-critical essay that offers a conceptual reflection on the notion of quality in academic editorial management, understood as a relational, historical, and situated concept. The text seeks to critically problematize the hegemonic meanings of quality in contemporary scientific publishing. First, it analyzes the concept of quality as a relational and contextual category, dependent on the aims and purposes that guide action, and distinguishes it from the notion of cualidad, understood as the singular character of something. Second, it questions the very possibility of speaking about editorial quality in a global context shaped by power structures and hegemonic evaluation models which, from industrialization to the contemporary university, have transformed quality into a device of control and standardization.