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Academic

: The Faculty Lounge

Two Stats From The Most Recent Season of Manuscript Submissions

By Tim Zinnecker

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I submitted two articles to numerous journals earlier this year in March/April using the Expresso service.

Two statistics:

Percentage of journals that took action triggering the ?confirmation of receipt? response at my Expresso account: 39%.

Percentage of journals that have informed me of a publication decision: 24%.

The first stat is probably meaningless (perhaps because the information itself is rather meaningless). But if Expresso is receptive to a suggestion, I?ll suggest that it modify its software in a manner that generates an automated ?confirmation of receipt? response at the moment when the journal opens its mailbox to which the manuscript was sent (rather than relying on an affirmative declaration from a student editor that the manuscript has indeed been received). Hey, if Expresso can't confirm receipt, why should I (or my law school) pay for the service?

The second stat is disappointing. Not disappointing because I didn?t receive offers from the other 76% of journals, but because I never received any response from 76% of journals. Should I conclude that:

student editors are simply overwhelmed with a flood of manuscripts and don?t have the time to contact all authors?

student editors have adopted the mantra, ?no news is bad news??

student editors are insensitive to our fragile egos, or perhaps enjoy a bit of payback for our Socratic grillings?

law schools should require students to take a course in ?document organization, time management, communication skills, and manners??

Thoughts?

Full post as published by The Faculty Lounge on June 29, 2009 (boomark / email).