Transcript Document

Writing for
Publication
Mark Dressman
University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
Allow Me to Introduce Myself
Co-Editor, 2008-13
Book Review Ed., 2001-07
Playing the Game
Publishing in peerreviewed journals is a
“game” with two sets of
rules:
1. General rules that
nearly all journals
follow; and
2. Rules and norms that
differ among journals
and disciplines within
educational research.
Knowing these rules and
following them carefully is
absolutely critical to being taken
seriously by editors and
reviewers of journals.
Based on my experience as an
editor, I would estimate that
40%-50% of manuscripts
submitted are rejected because
the authors did not “play the
game” and take these rules
seriously.
So, What Are These “Rules?”
(And what does it take
to follow them?)
First: Make sure that your manuscript fits
the journal you want to submit to.
• DO NOT pick a journal based simply on its title
or because it’s prestigious.
• For example, Research in the Teaching of
English is a journal that ONLY publishes
research about teaching English within English
language contexts.
• That means it DOES NOT publish articles about
teaching English as a foreign or second
language.
Instead, Do This:
• Go to the journal’s website (nearly all journals
have these) or to your library if it has the
journal and:
– Look at past issues to see if the titles and abstracts
of articles are similar to your topic
– Read the journal’s mission statement and
“guidelines for authors” to see what types of articles
the journal publishes on what topics.
• If your manuscript is not a clear match, DO NOT SUBMIT
IT. Editors will not accept a manuscript that does not
fit their topic for review and some will not even bother
to write you.
If you think your topic fits,
• Be sure that this is STILL the best place to
submit your manuscript.
• REMEMBER: You can only submit a manuscript
to ONE JOURNAL AT A TIME. This is a very strict
rule. If you submit the same ms. to two
journals simultaneously and the editors find out
(and they will because the actual pool of
reviewers is small and may overlap), your ms.
will be REJECTED by both editors, they’ll tell
everyone in the world, and you’ll struggle to be
trusted or published anywhere.
There’s another reason to be sure before you
submit that your ms. fits, and that is
• There may be other journals that are more
likely to publish your manuscript than the one
you are interested in submitting to.
• So, be honest with yourself. Do you want to
submit to this journal because it really is the
best fit or because it’s a prestigious research
journal?
• The answer should always be: BECAUSE I WANT
THE BEST CHANCE OF PUBLICATION
Reasons Why a Topic Might Fit but NOT
Have a Good Chance of Publication:
• The journal only publishes articles on “themes.”
• The journal is so popular that it must limit what it publishes.
• The journal’s readership is researchers and your manuscript
is written for a practitioner audience.
• Your methodology does not fit (the journal focuses on
qualitative research and your study is quantitative or vice
versa).
• Your ms. is theoretical and the journal only publishes
empirical work or vice versa.
If You’re Publishing in an International
Journal (Outside your Country or Region)
Let’s take the case of JLR:
Make sure that
your topic will be
one that an
international
audience will
understand and
find interesting.
Recent Article Titles from JLR:
Phillip A. Towndrow, Mark Evan Nelson, and Wan Fareed Bin
Mohamed Yusuf
Squaring Literacy Assessment with Multimodal Design: An
Analytic Case for Semiotic Awareness
Which of these might fit?
•
Michaela J. Ritter, Jungjun Park, Terrill F. Saxon, and Karen
A. Colson
A Phonologically Based Intervention for School-Age
Children with Language Impairment: Implications for
Reading Achievement
Manuscript Title #1:
Comparing Editions of English
Textbooks in Turkey, 1980-2014
•
Suzanne M. Miller
A Research Metasynthesis on Digital Video Composing in
Classrooms: An Evidence-Based Framework toward a
Pedagogy for Embodied Learning
Manuscript Title #2:
Content Area Literacy in a
Secondary Science Classroom: A
Report from Turkey
•
Manuscript Title #3:
Comparing Literacy Achievement in
Two Inquiry-Based Elementary
Classrooms: Qatar and Turkey
•
Manuscript Title #4:
Early Literacy Acquisition in a
Bilingual Turkish/English Classroom
Saad Shawer
Preparing Adult Educators: The Need to Develop
Communicative Language Teaching Skills in College-Level
Instructors
Steven J. Amendum and Jill Fitzgerald
Does Structure of Content Delivery or Degree of
Professional Development Support Matter for Student
Reading Growth in High-Poverty Settings?
If You’re Still in Doubt
• It’s a good idea to send a brief e-mail directly
to the journal’s e-mail address (DO NOT use the
editor’s personal address) and ask if the editor
thinks your ms. is a good fit. Include the title
and an abstract. DO NOT expect them to read
the whole paper. DO NOT send a message to a
journal unless you are honestly not sure.
You’ve Found the Perfect Journal.
Now What Do You Do?
• Read the submission guidelines VERY carefully.
• Make sure your ms. fits the page limit. If it is
too long, the editors may reject it or send it
back and tell you to “cut pages.”
• Make sure your ms. is written in the same style
as the journal.
• NOTE: All journals do not use APA or MLA or
Chicago or Harvard. Some use modified versions
of these.
If you really want to submit
a manuscript to a journal
that uses its own unique
style and your manuscript is
written in APA, what should
you do?
Answer: Re-edit your manuscript,
including all references, in that
journal’s style (copy it from an
article or articles published in that
journal), and respecting that
journal’s page limit.
Why Go to All That Work?!
• Editing to conform to the journal’s style sends the
strong message that you are VERY interested in
publishing in that journal.
• The editor will immediately notice and be impressed (I
suspect this is part of my success with multiple
international journals, including Ethnography, Journal
of Curriculum Studies, and Curriculum Inquiry).
• The editor will be in a much friendlier mood because
you’ve already done a lot of the copyediting work for
him or her.
REMEMBER
• Editors of journals are extremely busy people
who usually have low budgets and often need to
make quick decisions about whether to work
with an author on a manuscript or reject it.
• The easier you make that editor’s job for her or
him, the more likely that editor is to be
positively responsive to your work.
Once Submitted, Responsible Editors Will
• Read through your ms. or at least the abstract
within a week or so;
• Make a decision whether to send the ms. out
for review or not (most will not if it doesn’t
fit);
• Begin to look for 2-4 reviewers (different
journals have different policies) acquainted
with the topic (this can take some time);
• Notify you that your ms. has been received and
whether it is being sent out for review or not.
When You Submit
• Copy edit your ms. in advance to make it conform to all
rules and guidelines for the journal.
• Follow all directions carefully. If there is a website for
uploading your ms., USE IT. Do not send manuscripts to
an editor
• Include a cover letter. The letter should state the title
of the ms. and briefly explain its topic in 1 or 2
sentences. Also try to explain why you think your ms. is
a good fit for the journal (for example, because it
continues discussion on a topic already published in the
journal—name that topic and previous articles).
• REMEMBER: DO NOT SUBMIT A MANUSCRIPT TO MORE
THAN ONE JOURNAL AT A TIME.
If you don’t hear anything after a
month (if you get no e-mail at all):
• Don’t assume the best or the worst.
• Send an e-mail to the journal’s editorial site.
DON’T contact the editor at her or his personal
e-mail.
• POLITELY state that you’ve submitted a ms. but
have not received any confirmation of receipt.
Ask if they’ve received the ms. (maybe they
haven’t or maybe it’s lost and they’ll look or
maybe you made a mistake and it didn’t get
submitted after all).
How Long Does It Take?
• It can take 3 months or MORE for an editor to find
reviewers, send your ms. out, and get the reviews back
in.
• Many reviewers agree but then don’t do the review. It
can take an editor 10 OR MORE tries with reviewers to
get 3 reviews, believe it or not. This can take up to 6 or
more months.
• So, BE PATIENT. But if you hear nothing after 4 months,
go ahead and e-mail the journal (not the editor) and
POLITELY ask about the status of the ms.
The Decision-Making Process
• After enough reviews are received, an editor or
editors reread the ms. themselves and make a
decision.
• The decision categories vary by journal but
generally they are:
–
–
–
–
Accept with (minor) revision
Revise and resubmit
Reject with possible resubmission
Reject
Accept with Revision
• This decision is VERY rare. In my career, I’ve only
accepted ONE manuscript with minor revisions, and I’ve
only had 2 or 3 manuscripts accepted with minor
revision.
• At most major journals, fewer than 5% of all
manuscripts that are eventually published (1 out of
every 20) are “Accept with Revision.” This probably
means that less than 1% of all manuscripts submitted
are accepted with (minor) revision.
• This percentage is higher for regional and perhaps very
specialized journals.
Revise and Resubmit
• This decision is also not common (perhaps 20%30% of reviewed manuscripts), but it is the
decision that all authors typically hope for.
• What does it mean?
– An editor is usually interested in publishing your
paper but there are problems you need to fix.
– This is GOOD NEWS. If you get a “revise and
resubmit” decision, you should almost definitely
revise and resubmit.
Revise and Resubmit, Cont’d.
• If you get a revise-and-resubmit decision, what
should you do?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Celebrate!
Read the reviewers’ and editors’ comments carefully. Some editors
will write long letters outlining what you need to do to revise; others
write shorter comments and refer to the reviewers more.
Keep your temper. Sometimes you’ll completely disagree with the
reviewers or the editor. You need to decide if you can revise to
meet their requirements. ALMOST ALWAYS you should agree even if
you are reluctant.
IT IS A SIGN OF MATURITY as a researcher and writer to take
criticism constructively.
Send the journal an email stating whether you plan to revise or not.
If you plan to revise, outline your understanding of what must be
done.
REMEMBER
• Journal editors are busy people who don’t have
a lot of time or energy to deal with
temperamental authors.
• If an editor sends you a Revise and Resubmit
decision, they’re willing to work with you. You
should be willing to work with them.
• Do a good job of revising, making all the
changes that are requested.
• Include a letter in your resubmission explaining
how you’ve tried to respond to the revisions.
Reject with Possible Resubmission
• This is not a common decision (10%-20% of mss.).
• If you get this decision, the editor and reviewers think
there may be something publishable in your work, but
it needs major rewriting, not just revision.
• You need to read the reviewers’ and editors’ comments
very carefully and decide if you can make all the
changes needed.
• If you can make these changes and are willing to
rewrite, it may be worthwhile to make them. Editors
usually treat a manuscript like this as a new manuscript
and send it out to new reviewers.
Reject
• In most major journals, 50% or more manuscripts
sent out for review are rejected after the first
round of review.
• If your ms. is rejected it’s usually because:
– The ms. was not a good fit after all;
– There were serious problems with your writing (ungrammatical,
argument not sound, confusing)
– There were serious problems with your study (your methodology was
flawed or your don’t have the evidence to support your claims)
• If the decision is to Reject, there’s no hope with
this journal. Read the comments, try to revise, and
send the ms. out to another journal.
Minimizing Your Frustration
• The frustration that many authors feel with
publishing in peer-reviewed journals often
comes because their manuscript is not a good
fit with the journal they are trying to publish
in.
• You can minimize this frustration by being
honest with yourself about the overall quality
and purpose of your ms. and selecting a journal
based on the quality of fit and NOT on how
prestigious the journal is.