Conceptualizations of language errors, standards, norms and nativeness in English for research publication purposes: An analysis of journal submission guidelines

Adherence to standards in English for research publication purposes (ERPP) can be a substantial barrier for second language (L2) writers and is an area of renewed debate in L2 writing research. This study presents a qualitative text analysis of author guidelines in 210 leading academic journals acro...

Szczegółowa specyfikacja

Opis bibliograficzny
Główni autorzy: McKinley, J, Rose, H
Format: Journal article
Język:English
Wydane: Elsevier 2018
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author McKinley, J
Rose, H
author_facet McKinley, J
Rose, H
author_sort McKinley, J
collection OXFORD
description Adherence to standards in English for research publication purposes (ERPP) can be a substantial barrier for second language (L2) writers and is an area of renewed debate in L2 writing research. This study presents a qualitative text analysis of author guidelines in 210 leading academic journals across 27 disciplines. It explores conceptualizations of language errors, standards, norms and nativeness in journal submission guidelines, and identifies key concepts related to so-called error-free writing. Findings indicate that most of the journal guidelines are inflexible in their acceptance of variant uses of English. Some guidelines state a requirement of meeting an unclear standard of good English, sometimes described as American or British English. Many guidelines specifically position L2 writers as deficient of native standards, which raises ethical considerations of access to publication in top journals. This study leads to a discussion of a need to re-conceptualize error-free writing in ERPP, and to decouple it from concepts such as nativeness. It focuses on a need to relax some author guidelines to encourage all authors to write using an English that can easily be understood by a broad, heterogeneous, global, and multilingual audience.
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spelling oxford-uuid:9b4d7c99-02f1-40e8-9f65-c99a02630e452022-03-27T00:27:51ZConceptualizations of language errors, standards, norms and nativeness in English for research publication purposes: An analysis of journal submission guidelinesJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:9b4d7c99-02f1-40e8-9f65-c99a02630e45EnglishSymplectic Elements at OxfordElsevier2018McKinley, JRose, HAdherence to standards in English for research publication purposes (ERPP) can be a substantial barrier for second language (L2) writers and is an area of renewed debate in L2 writing research. This study presents a qualitative text analysis of author guidelines in 210 leading academic journals across 27 disciplines. It explores conceptualizations of language errors, standards, norms and nativeness in journal submission guidelines, and identifies key concepts related to so-called error-free writing. Findings indicate that most of the journal guidelines are inflexible in their acceptance of variant uses of English. Some guidelines state a requirement of meeting an unclear standard of good English, sometimes described as American or British English. Many guidelines specifically position L2 writers as deficient of native standards, which raises ethical considerations of access to publication in top journals. This study leads to a discussion of a need to re-conceptualize error-free writing in ERPP, and to decouple it from concepts such as nativeness. It focuses on a need to relax some author guidelines to encourage all authors to write using an English that can easily be understood by a broad, heterogeneous, global, and multilingual audience.
spellingShingle McKinley, J
Rose, H
Conceptualizations of language errors, standards, norms and nativeness in English for research publication purposes: An analysis of journal submission guidelines
title Conceptualizations of language errors, standards, norms and nativeness in English for research publication purposes: An analysis of journal submission guidelines
title_full Conceptualizations of language errors, standards, norms and nativeness in English for research publication purposes: An analysis of journal submission guidelines
title_fullStr Conceptualizations of language errors, standards, norms and nativeness in English for research publication purposes: An analysis of journal submission guidelines
title_full_unstemmed Conceptualizations of language errors, standards, norms and nativeness in English for research publication purposes: An analysis of journal submission guidelines
title_short Conceptualizations of language errors, standards, norms and nativeness in English for research publication purposes: An analysis of journal submission guidelines
title_sort conceptualizations of language errors standards norms and nativeness in english for research publication purposes an analysis of journal submission guidelines
work_keys_str_mv AT mckinleyj conceptualizationsoflanguageerrorsstandardsnormsandnativenessinenglishforresearchpublicationpurposesananalysisofjournalsubmissionguidelines
AT roseh conceptualizationsoflanguageerrorsstandardsnormsandnativenessinenglishforresearchpublicationpurposesananalysisofjournalsubmissionguidelines