Today’s post is dedicated to a friend of mine, who is
petrified of contacting an editor.
Why is my friend scared, you may ask. I honestly don’t know,
but my main guess is that the editor represents all of academia and stands to cast out judgment. It’s pretty common
to develop at least a shade of imposter’s syndrome during graduate studies, and
this really comes to the fore when postgraduate students start discussing
article submissions.
So here are my thoughts on the issue. The part of my friend
will be played by bold. The conversation isn’t verbatim because when I said
“friend”, I quite obviously meant a composite of every graduate student I’ve
ever met. Though I do have friends. I promise.
I have a question about
something in my paper, and I’m really not sure what common practice is. It’s a
non-standard term, and I don’t want to sound dumb. What would you do? I’ve
asked around and everyone is saying something different.
Well, composite friend, I know what I would do, but that’s
irrelevant. You’re interested in what the journal would want. If you are so
very concerned about it, contact the journal and ask. It’s very rare for
something like this to decide whether your paper is accepted or not, but
chances are, it’s not the first time someone has asked. Is there an
administrator to contact? Email and ask.
But won’t that make
me look overly paranoid and pesky?
No. That’s why there’s a contact for queries like that. Same
goes for word counts...concerned whether the word count includes references,
etc.? Ask. Editors and administrators don’t bite (usually).
What if they don’t
respond?
Read the guidelines for authors (the answer might be in
there), then submit the paper with the best guess you’ve got. Don’t wrap yourself
into knots over such a small issue – be more concerned about the overall paper.
Quite often when authors get wound up over a small issue, they lose the plot.
Usually, if your non-standard use is going to be queried, it will be at the
reviewer stage. They are, after all, the experts.
So you’re saying it’s
OK for me to contact an editor before I submit a paper to them?
YES. A THOUSAND TIMES YES. Editors and administrators, in
general, do not have a problem about being contacted about possible, potential
papers. It actually makes a nice change sometimes to get an email from someone
that isn’t an automated email from our online portals saying that “X has
submitted a paper entitled Y. Please do something about it.”
No one has EVER told
me I could contact an editor before.
I know. It’s one of the flaws of the system. We pressure
students and early career researchers to publish, but the system provides very
little guidance on the practical process and the nitty gritty of actually
getting to the point of publishing. Yes, you can contact the journal. Yes, you
can ask questions before submitting your paper. Yes, you can send an abstract
and ask if the journal is right for your paper your paper is right for
their journal.
What was that last
bit?
Choosing the correct journal is one of the single most
important parts about getting your paper published. It’s the number one reason for rejection. The
onus of finding the right journal is on the author – and it’s well worth your
time to research this carefully. I’ll be doing a separate post on this sooner
or later. It’s not uncommon for potential authors to email an abstract and ask
whether the journal would be interested in the paper. Usually, editors will
respond with a clear Yes, we’d love to consider it or no thanks, this one isn’t
for us. Why would an editor do this? It saves them time. But there are rules to
this.
The (previously) unwritten rules of contacting an editor or
administrator:
1. Be polite and be professional.
You would be surprised how many people forget
this rather obvious starting point.
2. Be clear and to the point. Do not give your CV
in introduction.
To be frank, we don’t really care who you are. We
operate a blind reviewing system, remember?
3. Include the title and abstract.
In-text is usually best. The abstract
should conform to the guidelines for submission. Don’t send a 250 word abstract
if the journal’s limit is 150 words. Don’t attach it as a separate file. Make
it easy for us.
4. IMPORTANT:
Do NOT include the entire paper.
NEVER
send your paper to an editor outside
of the formal submission/review process. It’s unethical and unprofessional. It
also wastes time and makes it appear that you want to bypass the system that
everyone else uses.
5. Include your contact details
Yes, we should just be able to click reply,
but things happen. This is a formal email. Treat it as such.
6. Don’t overdo it.
Don’t email every editor under the sun.
Don’t do this every time, only when you really need to or are unsure about the
Aims & Scopes of a journal. Speaking of...
7. Be sure you have FULLY read the Aims &
Scopes and Author Guidelines before
contacting an editor or administrator.
If you ask us something that is on those
pages, we’ll just refer you to them. Take the time to see if we’ve already
answered your question elsewhere. Chances are, we have.
8.
Don’t give a deadline.
Again, you may be surprised how many emails
include a phrase similar to “if you could let me know by...” These sorts of
demands really irritate me. You’re
the one emailing to ask for something extra.
9. Always include manuscript reference IDs and
previous correspondence.
This is for after submission. If you are
emailing about a paper, ALWAYS include the reference identifier for your paper.
We don’t keep track of authors, we keep track of IDs. It’s infuriating when I have
multiple queries to deal with and have to go searching for which paper we’re
talking about. We have hundreds of papers in our system. If you have previous correspondence, include
the email trail. We’re more likely to know the answer to what you’re asking if
we actually know what you’re talking about.
Treat contacting an editor or even the administrator as
emailing a colleague in another institution. Because that’s what you are doing.
And don’t expect a glossy response. It’ll probably be short and to the point.
We can’t spend oodles of time on a potential paper. Editors will usually, in
good faith, say whether or not it falls into the interest area, but keep in
mind that ALL submissions are good for a journal for two reasons: (1) it will
end up with a good article (2) it will increase the rejection numbers, thus
decreasing the acceptance percentage, thereby attracting better quality papers
that will result in (1).
I suppose my closing thoughts are this: Editors and
administrators are just people. Academic people, yes, but just people who were
once at the same stage of their careers as you. That being said, don’t be
scared to contact us, especially if it’s likely to come up later on down the
line. Editors edit because they enjoy
it. Trust me, what pay there is for editors isn’t enough to make someone do it
unless their heart is truly in it, which means they enjoy encouraging early
career scholars whenever they can.
Still scared? One
last thought: if you do email, you’ll probably get a response from someone like
me. Which can’t be too bad, can it? (maybe don’t answer that...)
Anything else? Email or comment - or tweet Tweet to @ECRPublishing
-theAdmin
