Editing collective volumes
Riitta Jääskeläinen
(From the
1.
Introduction
This paper relies mainly on my own experiences
with editing and contributing to collective volumes. Since I have not received
formal training in editing, the following is an informal account of learning
(something about) editing by doing it. The main purposes of this account are to
promote discussion about publishing in Translation Studies, to benefit others
by recounting what has been learnt by doing, and to make implicit knowledge
more explicit and visible to others. As one of the aims of the EST symposium on
publishing in Translation Studies was “to provide a service to young members
who may wish to have some guidance”, my motivation in choosing these particular
points for discussion has been: what I wish I had known before I started
co-editing my first collective volume.
In the following, I will offer my views on
three issues (in the hope that an exchange of views will follow): 1. How to
maintain quality? (or quality management); 2. How to
maintain order? (or project management); and 3. How to
maintain sanity? However, to provide some background, I will start by
elaborating what I see as challenges in publishing in Translation Studies,
particularly with regard to editing collective volumes.
2.
Challenges
There are two things which seem particularly
challenging in terms of publishing in TS; one deals
with interdisciplinarity and the other with the
external demands on publishing.
As was implied above in point three, there is a
great deal of implicit knowledge about various academic practices, including
publishing, among the members of academic communities. These are not, however,
always obvious to outsiders, or even novices within a field. As an inherently
interdisciplinary field of research, Translation Studies is a melting pot of a
variety of academic traditions. These relate not only to national, linguistic
and cultural conventions (e.g. academic writing in different languages) but
also to different disciplines, which in the case of TS can range from literary
theory to computer science, from English studies to experimental psychology, to
mention but a few.
The rules or norms of academic writing differ
considerably in different linguistic and academic communities (see e.g. Mauranen 1993; Ventola and Mauranen 1996), even though the
differences are becoming increasingly blurred as English is strengthening its
role as the lingua franca of
research. Still, in editorial work it is necessary to be aware of the existence
of such differences: research reports may have the surface structure of written academic
English but carry the argumentation structure and style of their source culture(s).
The same applies to different disciplines: the style of writing in literary
studies is rather different from reporting in psycholinguistics, for example,
and this is a challenge to editors in particular. I will return to this point
below in relation to maintaining quality.
The original questions posed for the symposium
mentioned two types of collective volumes: thematic collective volumes and
conference proceedings. However, there seems to be greater variety of
publication types: there are thematic volumes, selected papers from
conferences, conference proceedings proper, etc. At least the first two can
also be peer reviewed, while conference proceedings proper are assumed not to
undergo the peer review phase. There is also at least one more type, which
seems particularly elusive, and that is the Festschrift.
Apparently, one does not screen Festschrift
contributions in any way, nor is it customary to have the contributions (peer)
reviewed. All this implicit knowledge was encountered in an attempt to produce
a Festschrift aiming at quality –
which, as it turns out, was an oxymoron in the eyes of some of the
contributors.
Now, the type of publication figures centrally
when universities and university departments start counting their “outcome”
which in turn may play a significant role in funding entire universities as
well as individual scholars. In the symposium discussions, it turned out that
in some countries there is an elaborate system of counting points: following
the natural science tradition, peer reviewed journals receive the highest
number of points, while conference proceedings, peer reviewed or not, receive
few, if any, points. Other countries have different systems of listing and
rewarding publications. For example, the latest call for research project
applications by the
3.
Maintaining quality
First a little digression: Quality has become
more and more difficult to define – in many circles quality seems to be defined
mainly in terms of quantity instead of the more traditional idea of being
“good”. The
To return to the issue of maintaining quality
(in the traditional sense) in editing collective volumes, it is essential to
provide clear guidelines and instructions (in the form of a style-sheet) to the
contributors. It is equally essential for the contributors to follow these
instructions. Submitting the contributions for peer reviewing is also a way to
maintain quality in the volume. Peer reviewing as well as editors’ own
criticism should always be constructive: commending strengths, pointing out
weaknesses and suggesting improvements.
Style-sheets need not be very detailed in terms
of general lay-out; in fact, with modern text-processing software the opposite
is true: the less detail, the easier the final editorial process. However,
details are important when it comes to things like uniform spelling of
abbreviations, the bibliographical style to be followed, etc. To be of any use,
the instructions given on style-sheets should be followed by the contributors.
With younger scholars this is not usually a problem; it is the more mature
generation of scholars who tend to be set in their own ways and ignore the
specific instructions. In the end, it is the editors’ task to check the
details; there having a stickler to detail in the editorial team would help
(see the section about maintaining sanity).
The anonymous peer review or referee process
aims at maintaining high quality in publications. Anonymity is, however, a
double-edged sword. On the one hand, anonymity should guarantee fair treatment
of the proposed article on its own merits as a piece of research and a piece of
academic writing. In other words, beginners and more established scholars
should start from an equal footing in terms of assessment criteria. On the
other hand, once the personal element is removed from the text to be assessed,
anonymity may also result in destructive instead of constructive criticism. The
author and the reviewer may represent conflicting research paradigms, which
might explain the crushing criticism given to the proposed article. This kind
of contextualisation cannot be done, if the parties remain anonymous. And this
is where the editors’ role as feedback filters becomes crucial: without
revealing any identities, the editors can filter out and soften the feedback to
focus on what is fair and relevant (see also Remael’s
paper on peer reviewing). Ideally, of course, reviewers will be able to step
outside their own paradigm and assess research on its own terms; but, alas, we
do not live in an ideal world. Paradigm clashes tend to be more dramatic than
other kinds of sub-cultural clashes in (peer) reviewing, but a
unfamiliar style of academic writing may also result in negative feedback,
although probably to a lesser extent.
4.
Maintaining order
The issues to be discussed here deal with
project management. As any project (a translation project, a
localisation project, or a PhD project), a project of editing a collective
volume benefits from careful planning. This includes designing a
realistic timetable for the process with realistic deadlines for first
versions, review phase(s), and final versions. In this respect editing
collective volumes differs from editing journals which have a more or less set
annual timetable for publishing their issues. The project timetable should have
built-in flexibility to allow for unexpected events – i.e. life happening to
editors and contributors alike: people moving house or workplace, getting
married or divorced, having babies or falling ill. And in case of life
happening, it is best to start negotiating extensions to deadlines right away;
it is usually possible to find a workable compromise, but not after your
contribution is six months late.
Another important issue is managing documents
in the editorial process: how to label manuscripts, where and how to store them
etc. These things have been made relatively simple by modern information and
communication technology, but that is often a mixed blessing. For instance,
sending manuscripts as email attachments makes everybody’s life easier –
provided that there is a clear system of naming documents included in the
instructions given to the contributors. Editors soon realise that receiving a
dozen attachments named as “savonlinna paper” does
not exactly facilitate their work – which is of course a valuable learning
experience. Working with the guidelines of a major publishing house usually
provides useful hints in this respect.
For any larger editorial project, creating a
web-site for the editors seems like an excellent idea. Editors’ web-site, where
all the members of the editorial team add their comments etc, would help
prevent the problems involved with circulating several versions of manuscripts
among the editors. For instance, a project web-site is currently in use in the
process of editing a two-volume collection of articles “History of literary
translations into Finnish” (http://kvl.joensuu.fi/suomennoskirjallisuus/l.php in Finnish).
5.
Maintaining sanity
Last but certainly not
least, a few words about maintaining sanity as an editor – and perhaps also as
a contributor. Most editorial processes
are teamwork, which is generally a good thing: in an ideal case the editorial
team can combine individual strengths (like a keen eye for detail; the ability
to identify theoretical weaknesses) and complement each other’s expertise (e.g.
different specialisations in research). This is particularly useful in an
interdisciplinary field such as ours.
The editors’ different personalities and
working habits may also clash – some people want to plan ahead and distribute
their work evenly, while others prefer short and intensive work periods. It
helps to maintain sanity if these differences are discussed and acknowledged in
the project. However, often we are not aware of our different working habits
until they clash with someone else’s habits – these sometimes painful learning
experiences can be used in later projects. The situation is naturally different
if you are working with people that you know well or with an editorial team of
virtual strangers.
On the whole, paying attention to the points
mentioned above in relation to maintaining quality and maintaining order in the
editorial process also help to maintain sanity or to cope with stress. In other
words, the best way to cope with stress is to avoid it by careful preparation.
Despite all preparations, last minute computer failures and other such
calamities always mess up some part of the editorial process and cause stress,
anxiety, and panic. In that case, it is best to resort to whatever means
available.
6.
Finally
Academic traditions are usually learnt
implicitly during a kind of acculturation process. More explicit learning from
what other people have done might speed up the learning process and maybe also
make it a little smoother. One of the ways of doing this is to start shedding
light on our implicit knowledge, which has been the aim here.
References
Mauranen, Anna (1993) Cultural differences
in academic rhetoric: a text-linguistic study. Frankfurt am
Ventola, Eija and Anna Mauranen
(eds) (1996) Academic writing: intercultural and textual
issues.