Interacting with people during the review process
Courteousness and professionalism before submission
#EditorObservations 09 Courteousness and professionalism before submission (YouTube, 1m 37s)
The #editorobservations included in this section illustrate the many ways in which authors can be perceived as disrespectful by editors. Typically this involves sending unnecessary emails to editors, asking questions that should not need to be asked because the answers are available elsewhere or because the question is inappropriate.
The most common such enquiry in the context of my editorship with Annals of Tourism Research was the request to pre-assess a paper for suitability. Just imagine a journal editor who deals with five new submissions every day. When in that day would they be happy to, additionally, assess unstructured proposals for papers in an email? Scott McCabe and I made it a rule early on that we would not offer pre-assessments for several reasons: (1) we do not have the time; (2) the proposal provided by the authors is not typically the full paper and, as a result, cannot be thoroughly assessed anyway; (3) it would be unfair to all those authors who follow the instructions on how to submit a paper. Sadly, I often also suspect that authors are simply too lazy to read the information about the journal aims and scope, or read a few articles published in Annals. Instead, to save their time, they are quite happy to ask journal editors to give their time to providing submission advice. I perceive this as quite disrespectful. When someone asks me to do something that is unnecessary what I hear is: “Delay some of your other work or maybe skip dinner with your family today so you can solve my issue because I am too lazy to solve it myself.”
My advice to authors is to contact the journal editor only if you are absolutely certain that there is no other way to obtain the information you require and that obtaining this information is indeed crucial.
#editorobservation
Scott McCabe and I get about one email a day from authors sending us an abstract/draft manuscript and asking if it’s suitable for publication in Annals of Tourism Research.
Some editors are happy to pre-assess.
We feel that pre-assessments don’t add value to our review process.
#editorobservation
Double checked: not even a “thank you” at the end of this email.
Starting to feel a bit grumpy about everyone wanting to save their time by asking editors to do their work😠
It is the author’s responsibility to assess fit with the target journal.
#editorobservation
Rarely do I find myself lost for words.
But in this instance I genuinely do not know how to formulate a polite and constructive response.
It’s a rather big question.
And there is no recipe.
Maybe “Do brilliant research.”
Would that work?
#editorobservation
I would ❤️ to help authors.
Many sparkling gems buried in poor research design and presentation.
But I am only human.
Not 1 minute to spare after doing my own research, journal editing, reviewing, mentoring, raising 2 kids to be good citizens, staying married and sleeping a bit.
#editorobservation
Seriously?
SERIOUSLY?
#editorobservation
Some authors invite Scott McCabe + me to assess study proposals.
Yes, we view ourselves as proactive journal editors.
But workshopping studies before they are submitted takes the concept a bit too far😉
#editorobservation
Scott McCabe and I process ~1100 manuscripts per annum.
As fast as we can.
Please do not ask us for a pre-assessment of your article.
The best way to assess fit is to read:
- many published Annals of Tourism Research articles
- the journal aims and scope
- the guide for authors.
