In the less sophisticated developing world, researchers struggle with the new pressures. Increasingly, authors have to watch not just the quality of their research, but also the quality of the editing.
At the bottom of the heap are those that leave it to the production house to fix the worst horrors of text and illustrations.Įven in rich countries, budgetary pressures encourage publishers to flirt with short-cuts, on the grounds that the author's byline relieves the journal of the obligation to offer much more than the administrative functions of reviewing, production and distribution. Some editorial offices provide such a service others just offer authors a list of copy-editors (increasingly, today, in India and China) who, for a fee, will tidy up the manuscript as best they can.
Others (as their 'editor' title implies) consider this practice to be a core function, as it maintains standards and consistency, brings their experience and knowledge to bear on the service they provide, and builds relationships with authorsediting and seeing a manuscript through to reliable error-free publication is part of editorial best practice.įor a journal to remain internationally respected and competitive, in fact, someone must take responsibility for detail, and this is normally the most time-consuming part of the operation. Some part-time editors, therefore, with day jobs as university teachers and researchers, are unable to spend precious time editing and proof-reading the manuscripts that come to them. (The CSIRO in Australia used this model when they launched their suite of national research journals.) In South Africa, limited budgets permit such luxuries in very few cases.
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Top journals employ full-time professional editors and enjoy skilled and effective marketing. The great majority of these scientists therefore publish abroadand are encouraged or required to do so by funding agencies concerned with the ISI-type rankings of the journals in which the articles appear. Why do so many publications struggle? and can anything be done about it?įor a start, top researchers seek exposure for their work in well-edited, professionally produced, high-impact journals. The common belief is that South African journals should be doing far better than they are, given the productivity of our best researchers and the exceptionally rich material available in so many fields in the 'unique South African laboratory'. The absence of key elements of the right kind can prove fatal. Feedback is necessary to judge whether or not you are on the right path. The right mix of cooperation and individuality is needed. Individual components (journals) engage in a struggle for survival without the right access to resources, technology and energy (finance), they wither fierce competition requires sustained adaptation if the organism is to flourish and perpetuate itself (publishing and management). It can operate on a small or large scale, within the huge, dynamic and constantly evolving global industry.
Professionals on the inside know that successful scholarly publishing is all about teamwork, which, in the contemporary biological idiom, can be likened to the practical functioning of an ecosystem. The realities in an editorial office, however, are very different from the theoretical perspectives of the academic outsider.
Most people have no quarrel with claims made for the significance and value of publishing scholarly (research) journals. Scholarly publishing in South Africa: facing reality
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