Abstract
There is a new tendency for institutions to augment their publications in journals indexed in the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI). Non-native English researchers may find it hard to get their submissions published in applied linguistics journals that are solely indexed in SSCI, which are known for their high rate of rejection. This could minimize the opportunity for researchers to get their manuscripts accepted for publication. This paper aims to collect data for academics’ perceptions of Saudi institutions to see their attitudes towards submitting and publishing in these journals. The article also aims to check the perceptions of journals’ editors on the submissions affiliated to Saudi universities to check the rate of rejection and the main reasons that lie behind the rejection. Thirty seven academics responded to an online survey designed to gauge their perceptions about submitting and publishing in applied linguistics journals indexed in SSCI. Academics perceive that publishing in such journals is difficult due to the high rate of rejection, long time of turnaround review, and a stringent peer review. Editors—those who responded to another survey—reported that a combination of outdated issues being investigated, poor research design and the lack of generalizability of research findings are the main reasons for rejecting submissions from Saudi academic institutions. On the bases of the study findings, limitations and tips for future studies are highlighted.
Highlights
Publication in scholarly journals is becoming a must in getting ones’ promotion and tenure (P&T) in academia
Thirty seven academics responded to an online survey designed to gauge their perceptions about submitting and publishing in applied linguistics journals indexed in Social Science Citation Index (SSCI)
62% of participants affirmed that they followed the Journal citation Report (JCR) that issued by Thompson Reuters every year. 64 % of the respondents knew the ranking of the applied linguistics journals according to their impact factors. 83.7% revealed that they were aware of the scope of the journals in their area of research. 29% recognized journals from other disciplines that can publish articles in applied linguistics field. 89.2% showed interest in abstracting and indexing of the venue of publication
Summary
Publication in scholarly journals is becoming a must in getting ones’ promotion and tenure (P&T) in academia. That is because institutions aspire to obtain a high rank among universities which is mainly based on number of published documents that carry the institutions’ affiliations besides the total of cited article related to these institutions (see Times Higher Education, 2016) In this regard, some institutions adopt stringent requirements to induce academics to publish in highly ranking journals indexed by international databases, the most reliable among these being Thompson Reuters’ Web of Science and its Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) or Arts and Humanities Index (A&HCI). Some institutions adopt stringent requirements to induce academics to publish in highly ranking journals indexed by international databases, the most reliable among these being Thompson Reuters’ Web of Science and its Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) or Arts and Humanities Index (A&HCI) These requirements make authors fall under the pressure of “publish or perish” syndrome, resulting in P&T, renewal of contracts, increment of salaries, granting subsidies and bonus. It aims to investigate the rate of submissions from Saudi institutions and the main reasons for rejecting such submissions from the perspectives of the journals’ editors
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