Devoney Looser’s piece, ‘How Your Journal Editor Works‘, is a nice reminder of the flesh-and-blood workings of a journal’s editorial work. The following points stand out:
- An editor is ‘a real person living in real time’, and probably struggles to fit in the work with all the other academic responsibilities.
- “The worst time to submit an essay is at the beginning of an academic term, with its crazy deluge of submissions.”
- “A smart author will study the structure of award-winning essays previously published in the journal.”
- Consider how you interact with the work of scholars on the editorial review board—they may well review the essay.
- “Do not — repeat, do not — complain to the editor about the reader reports you receive.”
- Do not resubmit revision too quickly as this can give the impression of hasty revision.
- “Thank the editors.”