Suresh Canagarajah's blog

4 comments

Some of you might be interested in the blog that Suresh Canagarajah kept during his tenure as chief editor of TESOL Quarterly. There are a lot of useful insights there on topics such as democratising the exchange of scholarly information, successful and less-successful publication strategies (make sure you don’t cc private emails to the editor), dealing with rejection letters (apparently they come in at least six different variants),  and lesser known facts about the peer-review process (you might be surprised by who reads your submission).

Sadly the blog has been inactive for a while, but I have found it to be an invaluable resource. I hope you all find it helpful, too.

Achilleas

 

 

4 comments

  • Magda
    13/04/2011 10:02

    Thanks for this, Achilleas! I had a good laugh reading some of the posts (style tyranny, rejection letters, etc.). Interesting and helpful.

    Magda

  • Achilleas Kostoulas
    12/04/2011 18:49

    That’s interesting, Lou. I think it’s one more sign that the peer review process is beginning to break down. There are too many articles, too many journals and too few people who can spare the time to undertake reviews regularly… So it makes some sense that journals are requesting your help in locating potential readers.

    But what does that mean for you? I guess that one could suggest reviewers who are likely to be sympathetic. In fact, I know of an ’eminent scholar’ who would certainly be honoured to be nominated 😉 On the whole, I think I would go for a rigorous peer review even if it meant risking rejection, on the principle that as it would help to locate weaknesses in the article before they appear in print.

    So how did you approach this task?

  • Lou Harvey
    12/04/2011 15:38

    I could have done with reading this two or three days ago – I was surprised, when submitting my own article yesterday, to be asked for ‘preferred reviewers’. I’d assumed that journals have their own pool of reviewers and that they just assign articles to the relevant people. I’ve been feeling terribly presumptuous about naming people – feel more relaxed about it now, though…

  • Eljee Javier
    12/04/2011 11:14

    Thanks for the link Achilleas! Some of the entries are wonderfully fun (in an ironic sense) – particularly the “Rejected Authors Fight Back” entry. 🙂