[Air-l] Trouble with journals

[Bonnie Nardi]

Jose makes a good point regarding peer comments.

Sometimes my papers are unfairly rejected (IMHO~!) but over the course 
of my career I have received much more positive, useful feedback than 
cockamamie rejections. In fact sometimes I am overwhelmed at the care 
with which reviewers skewer my papers, all the better to make me make 
them better.

On the previous point, journals should not take months for reviews. 
Conferences such as CHI and CSCW and journals such as CACM get reviews 
back quickly -- it's all a matter of expectations and culture. Many 
journals are very responsible - choose them ;)

--

Bonnie

On Apr 25, 2007, at 10:23 AM, Jose P. Zagal wrote:

> However, you don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. One 
> of
> the benefits of the peer-review system is that many (if not most)
> articles that go through this process are  improved thanks to 
> thoughtful
> comments and suggestions from reviewers. While the current system may
> not be perfect, and your mileage will vary from journal to journal and
> editor to editor,  we should  recognize its strengths and think of
> alternate ways that can maintain those.
>
> Jose Zagal
>
> James Whyte wrote:
>> The issue of peer review could be eliminated by peer rating (all 
>> readers)
>>
>>   James
>>
>> John Postill <jpostill at usa.net> wrote:
>>   ------ Original Message ------
>> Received: Wed, 25 Apr 2007 09:54:32 AM BST
>> From: "John Postill"
>> To: "Maximilian C. Forte" ,
>>
>> Subject: [Medianthro] Trouble with journals
>>
>> Max Forte wrote:
>>
>>
>>> I am
>>> also a very passionate proponent of open access publishing, and in 
>>> that
>>>
>> vein
>> I am the
>>
>>> editor of a specialized, peer reviewed journal titled, KACIKE: The 
>>> Journal
>>>
>> of Caribbean
>>
>>> Amerindian History and Anthropology (at www.kacike.org), which has
>>>
>> encountered absolutely
>>
>>> *none* of the problems that opponents of open access journals 
>>> normally
>>>
>> list.
>>
>>
>> I'm glad Max has brought up the subject of journals as I've been 
>> discussing
>> this issue with colleagues recently and it seems to me (and others) 
>> that
>> something's seriously wrong with how the system works. I've 
>> experienced
>> firsthand and heard stories of journal submissions where one is kept 
>> waiting
>> anything between 12 and 24 months before hearing any substantial 
>> news, and
>> that's after having chased this up with the journal a number of 
>> times. At the
>> same time, authors are not allowed to submit the same piece to another
>> journal, so often at the end of a very long wait a rejection comes and
>> they're
>> back to square one having wasted precious months.
>>
>> It's clear that people are busy and that peer reviews take time, but 
>> should
>> we
>> really have to wait 12-15 months, or even longer, for a response? 
>> Perhaps
>> journals should commit themselves to a reasonable waiting period 
>> (say, max 4
>> months) and publish figures of the time it takes them on average to 
>> get back
>> to prospective contributors? Or perhaps contributors themselves should
>> publish
>> or circulate these figures in the public domain?
>>
>> Any thoughts on this?
>>
>> ******************************************
>>
>> EASA Media Anthropology Network
>> http://www.media-anthropology.net
>>
>> For further information please contact:
>> Dr John Postill
>> Sheffield Hallam University, UK
>> jpostill at usa.net
>>
>> To manage your subscription to this mailing list, visit:
>>
>> http://lists.easaonline.org/listinfo.cgi/medianthro-easaonline.org
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> The air-l at listserv.aoir.org mailing list
>> is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org
>> Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: 
>> http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
>>
>> Join the Association of Internet Researchers:
>> http://www.aoir.org/
>>
>>
>>
>> ---------------------------------
>> Ahhh...imagining that irresistible "new car" smell?
>>  Check outnew cars at Yahoo! Autos.
>> _______________________________________________
>> The air-l at listserv.aoir.org mailing list
>> is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org
>> Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: 
>> http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
>>
>> Join the Association of Internet Researchers:
>> http://www.aoir.org/
>>
>
> -- 
> José Pablo Zagal
> PhD Candidate - Georgia Institute of Technology
> jp at cc.gatech.edu  - http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~jp
>
> _______________________________________________
> The air-l at listserv.aoir.org mailing list
> is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org
> Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: 
> http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
>
> Join the Association of Internet Researchers:
> http://www.aoir.org/
>
Bonnie A. Nardi
Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences
University of California, Irvine
Irvine, CA 92697-3440
(949) 824-6534
www.artifex.org/~bonnie/