The Desirable Author: Some Perspectives from Editors

Greetings again. I hope you’re doing well.

Recently I attended a National Association of Science Writers (NASW) conference. I enjoyed learning and networking there. I also enjoyed seeing my former students who attended—including Alex Arreola, who translates AuthorAID blog posts into Spanish.

At one conference session, editors discussed how to be an author that editors want to work with. Although the editors were from magazines for the public, some of their points also apply to working with editors of research journals.

One set of points regarded making revisions that the editor requests. Advice about making such revisions included the following:

• Show a positive, “can do” attitude.
• If you don’t understand a request, ask for clarification.
• Don’t argue about every request.
• If a requested change would cause a serious problem, discuss the situation with the editor.

The editors seemed to value being easy to work with regarding revisions. One editor said it was the most important factor in whether he would want to work with the author again.

An editor said he didn’t expect articles to be perfect when they were first submitted. He said, though, that when authors submit revised versions after receiving feedback, he expected those versions to be excellent.

One editor said he realized that people sometimes have problems and so cannot meet deadlines. He emphasized that when such delays arise, the author should tell the editor as soon as possible.

Reports on the conference sessions are now available. Especially if you are interested in popular communication of science, consider looking at these reports and other items on the NASW website.

Until the next post—

Barbara