to "Intl" and others:
The first place to check is Cabell's Directory. Published about every two
years, this does give information about turnaround times, lead time to get
published, etc. It is based on Editor submitted information so it is not
independent.
However, most journals are sponsored by a society, a school, or other
organization that does claim to be professional. When turnarounds are
very slow, they are sometimes due to particular reviewers, rather than to
the Editor. Given that getting effective reviewers is often difficult,
Editors can be loath to discard good, willing reviewers who are
nevertheless slow.
However, when reviews are much slower than advertised, it makes sense to
first communicate with the Editor, and then to communicate with the
President or other officer of the sponsoring society; the Dean of the
sponsoring school, etc. Having been on the Board and finally
President-Elect of a society that had trouble with an Editor (not the
current Editor who is superb), I can tell you that we wish we'd had more
feedback from authors about a situation that started out good and went to
pot over a period of time. I think we'd have acted sooner; of course, one
issue was the difficulty of finding a willing someone who would improve
the situation.
Find out who is the society's President; communicate with her. Most
societies are concerned about their Journal's reputation; they will do
their best to correct such a situation.
Finally, for those of us who are senior members of various societies, take
action to let current officers know about problem situations that are
developing when we become aware of them. I've just recently become aware
of such a situation in another society, and have resolved to let the
current President know what I have found out, privately.
Tim Edlund, Morgan State University
On Sat, 4 Dec 1999, Intl Prof wrote:
> I share Gopi's sadness in not being able to divulge my
> identity. I will be lying if I say it is not the fear
> of retribution !
>
> But the issue here is not my identity, it is whether
> or not research journals should be held accountable to
> profesional standards.
>
> I am wondering why it is not possible to incorporate a
> system of accrediting journals by autonomous agencies
> such as AACSB. This will do good to both the journals
> as well as the authors.
>
> When business schools are accredited, ranked and
> rated,
> when faculty's (research) performance is appraised on
> the basis of journals that he/she has published in,
> why not bring in objectivity to this whole exercise by
> accrediting the journals and instituting some
> standardized guidelines?
>
>
> Int Prof