SEOUL, October 06 (AJP) - A Yeungnam University professor who edits an international journal on research methods has won both of Springer Nature's 2026 Editor of Distinction Awards. The academic publisher gives the honors to editors who rank among its most active and fastest at handling submitted papers.
According to Springer Nature's award criteria, the Editorial Contribution Award goes to editors in the top 20 percent for the number of manuscripts sent to peer review. The Author Service Award goes to editors in the top 20 percent for how quickly authors receive a first decision on their submissions.
Park Han-woo, a professor of media and communication at Yeungnam University, received both awards for his work as editor-in-chief of Quality & Quantity, an international methodology journal published by Springer Nature.
Peer review is the process in which outside experts check a study before it is published. Journal editors decide which submissions go to reviewers and which are turned away at the outset. They also manage the exchange between authors and reviewers until a paper is accepted or rejected.
Springer Nature named six of the journal's editors for the Editorial Contribution Award and two for the Author Service Award. Park and Matthijs Den Besten were the only editors at Quality & Quantity to receive both, according to the announcement on the journal's website.
The journal publishes work on the tools social scientists use to collect and analyze data. Its articles span economics, psychology and sociology.
In its announcement, Springer Nature said the awards honor editors for their "dedication to their journals and research communities."
The publisher presents the awards each year across its journals. Editors at several other titles, including the Journal of Population Economics and Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, also received both honors this year.
Park has taught at Yeungnam University since 2003 and also serves as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia. In the early 2000s he helped pioneer webometrics, a field that measures how information and hyperlinks spread across the internet.
The International Communication Association elected him a fellow in May 2023.
Copyright ⓒ Aju Press All rights reserved.
