Perceptions of Journal Editors Regarding Submissions from East Asia—A Survey

Cactus Communications, a company that offers editing, translation, and medical writing services to authors from non-English-speaking countries, would like to invite editors of scientific, technical, and medical (STM) journals to participate in a survey on how journal editors perceive submissions from East Asia (China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan).

China, Japan, and Korea are important contributors to global academic publications, and the world is eagerly looking at the contribution these regions will continue to make. However, owing to barriers of culture and language, it is possible that researchers from these regions face some unique challenges in getting their papers published in international journals. Moreover, as submissions from these countries increase, journal editors may be able to spot some trends in the kind of problems they encounter with these submissions. Are the perceptions that journal editors may have formed aligned with the challenges authors face?

In an attempt to bridge the gap between east and west, CACTUS is conducting a study involving two parallel surveys—one with STM authors in the east and another with journal editors in the west. The study aims to bring in perspectives from authors in the east, tie them in with those of journal editors in the west, highlight gaps, and recommend improvements. The study findings will be shared and discussed in a session at the 2013 conference of the Council of Science Editors (CSE), Montreal, May 3–6. A brief report of the findings will also be shared with ALPSP members. CACTUS hopes that understanding the challenges authors face will help journal editors tweak their processes for better handling of increasing submissions from the east. They believe that this study could considerably enhance existing knowledge regarding publications and authors from the east. The survey is open to all English-language STM journal editors who are directly involved in editorial decision-making. Your participation is strongly encouraged.

The survey will take only about 15 minutes to complete. On completion, you could be one of three lucky participants to win an Amazon voucher worth $100.

The survey is available at the following link: http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/1092518/Perceptions-of-journal-editors-regarding-submissions-from-East-Asia .