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Flourish:
An Electronic Newsletter for Scholarly Writers
July
2006
vol.
2, no. 7
Oddly, researchers
rarely study researchers. So I was delighted when I discovered
Anne C. Weller's literature review titled Editorial
Peer Review: Its Strengths and Weaknesses (2001, Information
Today). She does an amazing job of collating and analyzing
the various studies on what gets rejected and why. I thought
you might be interested in some of what she found.
Studies conducted
several decades ago on the publication experiences of those
in the physical and social sciences found that one third
of authors who had gotten an article rejected had abandoned
not only the article but also the entire line of research
on which it was based (Garvey, Lin, & Tomita 1972).
That's really too bad because many published articles were
first rejected by other journals.
For instance, you may remember the
story I told in the first
issue of Flourish about George Akerlof, who
won the 2001 Nobel Prize in economics for a thrice-rejected
article (Gans and Shepherd 1994). Other studies of Nobel
Prize winners found, similarly, that editors had rejected
early versions of their award-winning work (Gans and Shepherd
1994; Campanario 1995). One study of famous articles found
that one-tenth of them had been rejected by a journal before
being published by another journal (Campanario 1996). In
other words, just because editors reject your article does
not mean that it is unpublishable.
Several studies
suggest that at least 20 percent of published articles were
first rejected by another journal (Weller 2001, 65). Of
the articles rejected by prestigious journals, over half
go on to be published in other journals (Weller 2001, 66).
In fact, one scholar concludes that if you are doing groundbreaking
research you should not send it to a prestigious journal-they
will be more likely to reject it (Comroe 1976). As Weller
concludes, "studies have shown that indeed, a good percentage
of rejected manuscripts do become a part of the published
literature" (Weller 2001, 70).
Therefore, don't
get discouraged if editors reject your article--simply resubmit
it elsewhere. Just know that although one study shows that
about half of resubmitted rejected articles were not revised
(Yankauer 1985), revising the article increased the chances
of the second journal accepting it (Imon, Bakanic, and McPhail
1986). Finally, if the peer reviewers give you long, detailed
recommendations for revision, you can take comfort in knowing
that articles that receive long readers' reports are more
likely to be cited in future (Laband 1990)!
Quote
Unquote
I highly recommend
an article about scholarly productivity in the Chronicle
of Higher Education:
I don't care what they say: It is possible
to write and teach at the same time. In fact, I have a hard
time writing without teaching (sabbaticals are always disastrous
interludes for me, a time when I tend to sink into depression,
writing more slowly, thinking a lot less clearly). Teaching
organizes my life, gives a structure to my week, puts before
me certain goals: classes to conduct, books to reread, papers
to grade, meetings to attend. I move from event to event,
having a clear picture in my head of what I must do next.
Without the academic calendar in front of me, I feel lost.
. As a graduate student, I watched a few of my more prolific
mentors carefully. One of them [was] an extremely productive
and original scholar . I once asked him the secret of his
productivity, and he said, without hesitation: "I've
learned how to use the odd gaps of 20 minutes or so that
occur at various points in the day."
Since starting graduate school I have tended
to feel overwhelmed. I don't accomplish as much as I want,
which makes me feel guilty and less capable as a student.
I feel like I should know how things work by now -- I should
always be on top of things, reading and writing should be
a piece of cake, navigating the institution should be a
breeze, and I should love every second of the process. This
has not been my experience and I get mad at myself (literally
mad!!) because it hasn't been. Over time, the realization
that my working process, and writing specifically, has not
been what I wanted for myself has served to paralyze me.
I think just hearing [in a writing class the previous week]
that I am not the only one struggling with writing enabled
me to take a huge step forward. It was great to be in a
safe space where we could express our vulnerabilities and
not feel judged. It is helping me to 're-envision' graduate
school as a place I do belong, even though I may struggle
with my writing.
Flourish reader Lars
Larson sent along many excellent quotes on writing. Here
are two:
"Writing is like
driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as
your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that
way." --E. L. Doctorow
"Take the time
to write. You can do your life's work in half an hour
a day." --Robert Hass
Flourish reader Kathleen
Sheldon points to an exchange about writing in the American
Historical Association newsletter. A professor writes that
"Style
Is Not a Luxury Option: Reflections on the Prose of the
Profs" and an editor writes in recommending that more
authors hire a freelance copyeditor in "Outsourcing Style".
Resources
I recently met
with Christine Wilson, the coordinator of the UCLA
Graduate Student Resource Center, which was founded
and funded by UCLA graduate students. It is a groundbreaking
effort to provide graduate students with the support that
so many universities fail to provide. Among its many activities
are holding workshops on such topics as grant-writing, negotiating
relationships with faculty, and starting and completing
a dissertation. They hold an annual orientation in the fall;
this year it will be on Friday, September 22. If you are
not at UCLA, and don't have such a center, you might want
to think about recommending it at your university. News
from the Editor I started teaching my summer writing workshop
at UCLA. The first class is always exhilarating, getting
graduate students together to talk about writing.
News
from the Editor
I started teaching
my summer writing workshop at UCLA. The first class is always
exhilarating, getting graduate students together to talk
about writing, in public, often for the first time. Laughter
and relief are predominant feelings. Much work lies ahead,
but we face it together.
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