Non-English speaking scholars from developing who do not come from top universities of developed countries encounter serious obstacles of having their articles hurdle the peer-review system and get published, although most of them are writing research articles on studies they are very familiar with in their local cultures. Editors also encourage and help scholars from poor countries to have their work published in top journals.
Everyone is not good in English. There are at least a few people in most of the institutions who are good in English and they gladly help us when requested for.
Peer-review should not be looked upon a hurdle to anyone. If the manuscript is worth publishing it is often corrected and improved with suggestions by the reviewers themselves.
Yes, I think culture should be taken into account while sending papers for review. Subir Bandyopadhyay observes :' Peer-review should not be looked upon a hurdle to anyone'. But I am sceptical about it.Why ?Because I find that even after meeting all objections and modifying the paper in accordance with their suggestions it is not published.On the other hand some scholars like HWANG WOO-SUL and DIDERICK STAPEL prepared papers with manufactured data and their papers were published!So what is the use of peer review?
The developing countries must be reviewed exactly at the same level of the advanced countries. Thus, the developing countries will try to reach the advanced one.
Thanks for sharing your insights on the question. One cannot eliminate the biases of the reviewers, editors, and publishers with regard to the prioritization of their publications. Subjectivism and ethnocentricism can always enter into the picture when evaluating articles submitted for publications, the reputation of the author and the institution s/he represents can often constitute biases, human as we are, in accepting or rejecting manuscripts. So, what are the chances of scholars, especially the younger ones from developing countries with their less known universities, in the highly competitive world of academic publishing dominated by scholars from top universities of developed countries? Cheers!
Congratulation for this smart view and I agree completely with your say. Since You are understanding this idea, you can go to the middle level of Journals or less to create the reputation. Gradually, you can be famous and send to high level or even super Journals.
Hi,
I think that cultural background of an author should be irrelevant when judging a scientific paper. The work should be judged for its scientific worth. Nevertheless, as the English has become a Lingua Franca of the sciences in the 20th and 21th centuries, authors should present their papers in an acceptable English, and follow the journals' guidelines. Several known publishers offer help with the editing of the English.
If the only weakness is the linguistic skills, you may either use a proofreading software, or consult a proofreading house. Both cost little, but the software is cheaper, and faster.
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