“The well-written papers, with copy editing, are the base of success for our journal.” This would increase the chance to get it published. If the problem is too big, we would probably reject the paper and suggest to the author to find some help with the English, and then resubmit the paper. I also know that there are already in the market some companies that provide such help. Mesquita: In this case, in the past, I have advised authors to ask for help from a native English speaker. Q: How do you handle instances where a manuscript is conceptually sound, but in need of major copy editing?ĭr. Tsai: We usually suggest that the authors could ask a native English speaker to check and correct the writing of their paper, in addition to suggesting that they write with an academic approach, which is also very critical for journal papers. To sum things up, the comments and feedback cover both the structure and the style since most of the times, one comes or the other.ĭr. Even when the author is not a native English speaker, is he using the language in a correct way? Or is he borrowing words from his native language and just adapting them to English? Is this clear? Grammatically correct? In an accessible language? There are also papers where authors use such a hermetic language that it is not accessible to all kinds of readers. Is the author providing enough information about what has already been done in the area or not? Is there enough information about the empirical research? Is the reader able to replicate the work based on the information provided? Is the discussion of results valid? And is the conclusion legitimate? This would increase the chance to get it published.”Īlso, it should provide enough information so that the reader can assess the quality of the story. “If the problem is too big, we would probably reject the paper and suggest to the author to find some help with the English, and then resubmit the paper. In fact, I try to explain that a paper usually tells a story and that the author needs to provide enough information so the reader understands the story. It refers to the structure of the paper, since a bad/not correct one can ruin the description of research. Mesquita: The feedback provided to authors covers several aspects of the paper. Q: What approaches do you take in providing constructive feedback to contributing authors pertaining to writing style and copy editing?ĭr.
Tsai: We expect authors to describe their research questions and how they explored and found the answers, in an academic way.
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As an Editor-in-Chief, I expect papers that read well, that tell a story in clear language, that are in a writing style accessible to all kinds of readers, and of course, without language mistakes, grammatically correct, and free of typos.ĭr. I believe that sometimes the language barriers impact reviewer evaluations.
Most of the authors are not native English speakers, and sometimes the fact that they have not mastered the language interferes with the quality of the papers.
Mesquita: Well, the writing style can vary a lot from author to author. Q: How would you describe the writing style that your journal expects from the contributing authors to your journal?ĭr. Anabela Mesquita and Chia-Wen Tsai, of the highly respected International Journal of Technology and Human Interaction, to talk about their outlook on and approach to poorly edited manuscripts. With that said, we wanted to reach out to two Editors-in-Chief, Drs. Often, authors immerse themselves in their research articles and submit to a book or journal without having their content proofread and copyedited. “As an Editor-in-Chief, I expect papers that read well, that tell a story in clear language, that are in a writing style accessible to all kinds of readers, and of course, without language mistakes…”
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