27 January 2014

Contacting a Journal


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

-theAdmin

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