journal publication and journal lists

[Frans Plank]

Dear Nigel,

just for information, a couple of years ago there was some discussion  
of journal ranking on the Linguistic Journal Editors List.  There was  
a widespread feeling that linguistics as a discipline isn't well  
served by (commercial) Thomson Reuters citation indexes -- in  
principle a bottom-up citation-number-derived ranking.  I know there  
was some ERIH bashing going on especially in the UK;  but by  
comparison ERIH (yet updated?) would seem to give you a far better  
idea -- if this is what you need -- of the landscape of linguistics  
journal publishing, even though it is an expert-opinion-based rather  
than citation-derived picture.

By the way, there is also a similar Norwegian initiative:
http://dbh.nsd.uib.no/kanaler/

I'd assume readers have their personal rankings of what they like to  
read (and cite), journal-wise or self-published, in their heads or  
guts anyhow.  So, why bother with ERIHs and the like?  Is linguistics  
really such a vast enterprise that hiring and firing, promotion,  
funding and such business can't be done properly without such  
assistance -- by just reading the work someone has done, rather than  
checking her/his h-index?


On the original question of Wolfgang's, LT does publish stuff which  
can be on the long side, provided it is (found) relevant and good and  
not needlessly verbose.  And its electronic space for materials  
supplementary to printed articles (such as supporting data) is  
virtually unlimited.

Frans




On Mar 29, 2010, at 1:35 PM, Nigel Vincent wrote:

> What Martin says is very interesting and prompts me to ask a  
> question that takes us well away from Wolfgang's original request  
> (apologies for that, Wolfgang).
> On Wednesday I will be attending on behalf of the British Academy a  
> meeting in Brussels about the European Research Index for the  
> Humanities (ERIH). Researchers of my acquaintance in several  
> countries and across a range of disciplines have been in general  
> very negative about the idea of drawing up a ranking list of  
> journals (the Australians have done something rather similar  
> recently under the banner of ERA). I wonder what members of this  
> list feel about a) the general idea of categorizing journals in this  
> way as opposed to letting the rankings be derived bottom-up as a  
> function of citation numbers; b) the particular treatment of  
> linguistics and philology journals within ERIH.
> Nigel
>
>
> Quoting Martin Haspelmath <haspelmath at EVA.MPG.DE>:
>
>> Since increasingly, even papers from "print journals" are printed  
>> out rather than retrieved from a library in paper form, the  
>> difference is now mainly between journals with page number  
>> restrictions and journals without page number restrictions. The  
>> latter are obviously preferable (in typology, we have one so far: http://linguistic-discovery.dartmouth.edu/) 
>> .
>>
>> It seems to me that the future of linguistics lies in abandoning  
>> monograph publication, and shifting to journal-only publication.  
>> Increasingly, as linguists compete for resources with other  
>> disciplines, journal publication is seen as counting more. (In  
>> fact, it may make sense to go as far as relabeling entire book  
>> series as journals, to help evaluators and funding agencies see  
>> linguistics as what it is, a respectable science.)
>>
>> Martin
>>
>> P.S. I wouldn't recommend the "self-publishing" strategy suggested  
>> by Dan Everett as an option. As he notes, this is not available to  
>> junior scholars, so if it became acceptable, it would put them at a  
>> disadvantage. I think we should not cite unpublished work that  
>> isn't evidently intended for regular publication.
>>
>> dlevere at ILSTU.EDU wrote:
>>> Dear Wolfgang,
>>>
>>> It seems to me that work that doesn't quite fit an established  
>>> print journal or monograph series ought either to be submitted to  
>>> an electronic journal or simply posted on one's webpage with a  
>>> notice to the relevant list, at least for senior scholars such as  
>>> yourself.
>>>
>>> Most of the people who would read and benefit from your research  
>>> report are readers of this list and Funknet, and some on  
>>> LinguistList who don't read these two lists. In fact, by making  
>>> your work available to your colleagues by this announcement and  
>>> your webpage, you have probably already ensured that your paper  
>>> will be read by more people than most print outlets.
>>>
>>> I look forward to reading the work from your website.
>>>
>>> Others might have different opinions about publication, of course.  
>>> But that is my view.
>>>
>>> Dan
>>>
>>> Quoting Wolfgang Schulze <W.Schulze at LRZ.UNI-MUENCHEN.DE>:
>>>
>>>> Dear friends and colleagues
>>>> please allow me making a perhaps somewhat unusual post. But maybe  
>>>> you
>>>> can help me or give me some advise. I have produced an admittedly
>>>> lengthy paper on the *grammaticalization of antipassives* in  
>>>> terms of
>>>> split aspects systems, dealing mainly with Sumerian, Kartvelian,  
>>>> and
>>>> Proto-Indo-European, but including data from other languages,  
>>>> too. You
>>>> can download the first draft (attention: not yet proof-read by an
>>>> native speaker of English!) from
>>>> http://www.lrz-muenchen.de/~wschulze/antipass.pdf . My problem is  
>>>> that
>>>> I really don't know what to do with this paper. It is too long for
>>>> submission to a journal (79 pages), and too short for producing a
>>>> (slender) monography. Any suggestions (if ever you can imagine  
>>>> that the
>>>> contents are of relevance for our community)? In addition, I  
>>>> would be
>>>> happy to receive critics and other comments all of which would
>>>> undoubtedly help to improve the quality of the analyses.
>>>> Many thanks in advance and best wishes,
>>>> Wolfgang
>>>> -- 
>>>>
>>>> -- 
>>>>
>>>> *Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schulze *
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> -- 
>> Martin Haspelmath (haspelmath at eva.mpg.de)
>> Max-Planck-Institut fuer evolutionaere Anthropologie, Deutscher  
>> Platz 6
>> D-04103 Leipzig      Tel. (MPI) +49-341-3550 307, (priv.)  
>> +49-341-980 1616
>>
>
>
>
> -- 
> Professor Nigel Vincent, FBA
> Associate Vice-President for Research (Graduate Education)
> Director of the Manchester Doctoral College
>
> PA: Michelle Davies (michelle.davies at manchester.ac.uk) 0161-275-2227
>
>
> Room W1.21 Samuel Alexander Building
>
> Mailing address:     School of Languages, Linguistics & Cultures
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>
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