Peer Review

[Guest guest]

All,

 

When the list gets exciting as in the `Chinese language requirements' to

`fighting words' thread, people forget their netiquette and start replying

without excerpting. The digest becomes practically unusable without

sorting through the mess, which takes more time than many of us have. It

has been close to impossible to follow recently. I am sure I have missed

much because I have been reduced to searching for my name to see if there

is anything I should answer.

 

Please, please, except only a pithy reference to contextualize your

responses, not whole messages and digests!

 

> Paradigm Press and Blue Poppy I know have a type of peer review process,

> Bob Felt and Bob Flaws can probably do a better job of answering your

> question.

 

We are stricter now than in the past because there is now a contingent of

people who are willing and prepared to do review. Essentially though, each

MSS is given a suitability screening. MSS are rejected at this stage because

we can produce only a few hundred pages every year and receive many

more MSS than we can handle. This is typically called `aquisitions editing'

in the trade.

 

An accepted MSS will be sent to a couple of people selected for their

experience or knowledge in the principle matters discussed. They can be

anonymous or not; it is their choice. If the project is thought to have merit,

I will look at the marketing prospects, the technology needed, the

production mechanisms required and any outside expertise that must be

hired. If it then seems we are the appropriate publisher, (and that we are

not guaranteed to lose our shirts), we will contract the book, part of which is

the issuing of a set of guidelines concerning everything from attributions, to

footnotes, to indexes and the gloss.

 

When the MSS returns from the translator(s) or author(s) it is reviewed by

a bilingual editor, or two, any corrections are noted or made, and the MSS is

established in the production software. I will then edit the text, typically

working with the author(s) and editor(s) on an ad hoc basis. This is called

`substantive editing.'

 

When it is ready, it goes to PDF and is distributed to as many appropriate

readers as we can importune. In a final pre-production stage the book will

be checked for conformity to essential editorial standards. This is known as

`copy editing' or sometimes `line editing' and books like `The Chicago

Manual of Style' and others serve many, many presses as the editorial

standard.

 

The last pre-production stage is called `proofing' and concerns the endless

miseries of typos, which grow of their own accord in all written materials,

particularly those that have just gone to press.

 

In `big press' peer review, two experts are hired to read the MSS prior to its

acceptance. Acceptance is based on their reports, which are anonymous and

typically provided to the authors if the MSS is accepted. Peer reviewers are

not paid much, $75.00 is typical, and for many presses and many journals,

peer review is provided gratis. For example, The Journal of Asian Studies

has a rotating editorship and the editor's university department does much

of the work. In academia (which is something quite nastier than an ivory

tower) peer review is a major power-point that is much sought after. Being

a reader for a major academic press can keep some people in print so

academic presses represent the controlling department or scholar. The

equivalent in our milieu might be sitting on the committees that select

examination texts.

 

> I imagine (but don't know for sure) that the Chinese textbooks like

> Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion, and Fundamentals of ,

> must have gone through rather careful review processes, as they are used

> in Chinese medical schools.

 

I cannot speak for the great number of Chinese textbooks, but my

impression from discussions while obtaining translation rights is that

Chinese authors are rarely edited. Fundamentals of is the

Zhong Yi Xue Ji Chu, a well-known Chinese text. It was produced by

multiple authors working as a group but I have never inquired whether

there was a separate peer review process. CAM derives from a different

process aimed at the export market, my understanding is that it derives

from materials the Chinese developed to educate biomedical physicians to

TCM.

 

Bob

 

 

bob Paradigm Publications

www.paradigm-pubs.com 44 Linden Street

Robert L. Felt Brookline MA 02445

617-738-4664