In the Profession: Choosing the Right Journal for Your Manuscript

As the editor of Language in Society, I’m often asked about the journal’s acceptance rate. The short answer is that Language in Society eventually accepts a little fewer than 20 percent of the manuscripts that are submitted to us. The longer answer is more surprising. Of the 100 or 120 manuscripts I receive each year, I reject about half out of hand, without sending them to reviewers, because they are quite plainly inappropriate for Language in Society. This surprised me when I became editor, and I continue to find it frustrating. Other editors report the same experience with their journals. Scholars who are required to publish quickly, in well-regarded journals, may feel that the most important thing is to get research written up and out the door. Under the pressure of institutional requirements that clearly mandate publishing but are more vague about where publications should appear, they may decide to send their work to the first journal that comes to mind, a journal that’s in the university’s library, or the journal they think is the most prestigious, and just see what happens. On an annual performance report, being able to say that a manuscript is under review looks better than not being able to list it because it hasn’t yet been sent out. But choosing the right journal for your manuscript is a crucial step in the publication process. Taking the time to choose an appropriate journal can in fact speed the process up.