Comments on: Historiann.com EXCLUSIVE! Publishing in “Gender and History,” by co-editor Ruth Karras

By: Serendipities » Blog Archive » Gender, history & blogging

Serendipities » Blog Archive » Gender, history & blogging — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 08:18:27 +0000

[...] of Gender and History, in which she gives an inside view of academic publishing in journals. The first post walks the reader through the process of publishing an article (including a very useful practical [...]

By: Digger

Digger — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 18:42:12 +0000

Thank you so much for this. I have posted links for my students of both this entry and Part II.

By: Historiann.com EXCLUSIVE! Ruth Karras answers your questions, dishes some more : Historiann : History and sexual politics, 1492 to the present

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 15:51:20 +0000

[...] Mazo Karras returns today to answer some of the questions left in the comments to her previous post about publishing in Gender and History, whose North American headquarters have recently moved to the History [...]

By: Professor Zero

Professor Zero — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 07:47:30 +0000

“And to the modernists here, do you find articles on premodern women’s history interesting when they do appear in such journals…?”

yes.

By: magistra

magistra — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 13:39:03 +0000

I wanted to ask a cross-over question for this thread and the Judith Bennett one. Bennett is arguing that medievalists working on women’s history should be publishing in general women’s history journals, not just specialist ones. I’m a medievalist who has actually published in G&H, but I wonder what wider impact such kinds of articles have. So Ruth, are there any statistics from the Blackwells website or elsewhere about what articles in G&H get read most? And to the modernists here, do you find articles on premodern women’s history interesting when they do appear in such journals or do you tend to skip them?

By: ej

ej — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 03:13:25 +0000

I admit, when I started reading this blog, I had a bit of a chip on my shoulder. I submitted an article a journal in my field several months ago, and have yet to hear anything definitive. I am now just grateful that there are people in the field willing to devote so much time and effort to such a careful consideration of my work. Even though I had an idea of what was involved in the process, I was unaware of the full extent of the task at hand for the editors.

Though now I’m regretting that I didn’t submit to Gender and History. Clearly, my loss.

By: Indyanna

Indyanna — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 02:26:57 +0000

I forgot!

By: Ruth

Ruth — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 02:06:46 +0000

Indyanna: Oh, but this has already been revised and resubmitted. You think Historiann would let me guest post without editing?

Moria: Yes, yes, yes. You should have a venue in mind when you first begin to draft an article. My article on medieval prostitution in the Journal of the History of Sexuality would never be confused with my article on medieval prostitution in the Journal of Medieval Latin–different content because different audience.

In addition, European journals tend to publish shorter articles than US ones, and Gender & History’s average length (9000 words including notes) is somewhere in between. It’s worth paying attention to what your particular journal is looking for in this regard . We have been known to send articles back to authors saying “We are very interested in this and will send it out for review if you cut 2000 words from it.” Recommended length is usually not absolutely inflexible, but it’s a good idea not to push it too much.

By: Belle

Belle — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 00:39:14 +0000

This is incredibly helpful, and should be a part/parcel of the grad school process. Not to mention an addition to every P&T portfolio! Thanks Ruth (if I may be so bold) and Historiann (ditto) for putting this up for everybody.

By: Moria

Moria — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 22:36:56 +0000

This is tremendously useful — thanks to you both for posting. It’s exactly the kind of thing that needs to be taught in graduate programs, but (it seems) seldom is – valuable information with little sense of the crassly mercenary.

A successful junior woman I know has adopted (and transmits to her grad students) a marvelously efficient policy: if she wants to publish in a journal, she reads every recent issue of that journal. A pattern begins to emerge. She writes according to that pattern, in terms of the structure of her argument, the breadth or depth of her bibliography, the style of the prose, all of it — and she’s published very prolifically in just a few years, all while maintaining a high degree of her own scholarly integrity.

It’s a great skill to learn, and the contributions of journal editors to the array of available information provide a wonderful resource toward that end.