Ever since the Royal Society replaced the editor of the Philosophical Transactions with an editorial committee in 1752, it created an increasingly complex system which distributed editorial work and responsibility among many individuals. A 1902 suggestion that the Society ought to appoint an editor offers an opportunity to explore what the role of “editor” was believed to be: why might such a role now benefit the Society and its journals? What role might an “editor” play amidst the existing editorial structures? Examining the Royal Society's long‐standing commitment to distributed editorial practices offers a counterpoint to histories of academic editorship that focus on the rise of the sole editor. It allows us to investigate the acknowledged challenges of working with distributed editorial practices and to consider the shifting perception of the academic journal editor within the wider editorial system.

中文翻译：

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编辑，裁判和委员会：在19世纪和20世纪后期在皇家学会期刊上分发编辑工作

自从皇家学会取代《哲学交易》的编辑以来在1752年成立了编辑委员会，它创建了一个日益复杂的系统，在许多个人之间分配了编辑工作和职责。1902年有关学会应任命一名编辑的建议为探讨“编辑”的作用提供了机会：为什么现在这样的作用对学会及其期刊有利？在现有的编辑结构中，“编辑”将扮演什么角色？回顾皇家学会对分布式编辑实践的长期承诺，这与专注于唯一编辑者崛起的学术编辑历史形成了鲜明对比。它使我们能够调查在使用分布式编辑实践时公认的挑战，并考虑更广泛的编辑系统中学术期刊编辑的转变观念。