On the Fence/Writing for Journals

["George F. Hayhoe" <george -at- ghayhoe -dot- com>]

I'm the editor of STC's journal, _Technical Communication_. I'm also a
member of the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers)
Technical Activities Board Periodicals Committee, which oversees the
operation of several hundred journals, magazines, and newsletters
published by the 40 technical societies and councils that are part of
IEEE.

There seems to be a lot of misunderstanding on this list about what
differentiates professional journals, professional magazines, and trade
publications. Since the accuracy of what we write is so important, I
thought the following observations would be useful.

TRADE PUBLICATIONS

Trade publications often pay contributors for feature articles. The big
trade publications hire staff writers who author most of the feature
content. (The "news" articles in trade pubs are usually written by staff
from press releases.) The fees they pay vary considerably from one such
publication to another, though with most, you would need to be well
known and really good at what you do to command fees that would pay
something comparable to the salaries of most folks in our field.

These publications are funded almost exclusively by advertising, and
many are give-aways to those who make buying decisions for companies.
Because of the advertising connection, most trade pubs tend to focus on
products in their field of interest (hardware, software, electronics,
pharmaceuticals, etc.), reporting about new or forthcoming products, and
sometimes reviewing or evaluating those products.

Before publishing an article, trade publications typically check facts,
and the overall merit of the content is evaluated by editors, but no
trade publications I'm aware of use any kind of "peer review" process
(more about that in a moment). The value of the information contained in
these publications tends to have a very brief life. Many libraries don't
carry them; those that do usually don't keep back issues very long.

JOURNALS

At the other end of the spectrum are professional journals. Although
some journals give contributors a token payment (think in terms of a few
pennies per word), the overwhelming majority in most fields do not. In
fact, quite a few scientific journals charge authors a fee to defray the
cost of publishing their work (especially in fields that require lots of
4-color illustrations). Though some journals carry limited advertising
that offsets some of the publication costs, the major funding for most
journals comes from professional society dues, subscription fees, or a
combination of the two.

These publications are sometimes called "scholarly journals" or
"academic journals" because they require manuscripts to be approved for
publication by peer reviewers. Each manuscript is sent to two or more
carefully selected reviewers who ensure that the factual information it
contains is correct, that its research methodology is sound, and that
the results of the research are interpreted correctly. Manuscripts that
receive a favorable review are almost always revised and
re-reviewed--often several times--before they are accepted, and
typically fewer than half the manuscripts submitted to a peer-reviewed
journal are accepted for publication..

The primary focuses of journals are reporting the results of research;
making contributions to the theory of the field; reporting case studies
that make connections among theory, research results, and practice; and
sharing insights about practice in tutorials. These journals are usually
considered archival publications because the value of their content
tends to have a relatively long life, and articles on a topic are often
cited for many years by others who publish in that field. Libraries
typically subscribe to journals of interest to their patrons and keep
back issues indefinitely.

MAGAZINES

Professional magazines tend to be somewhere between trade publications
and journals. Those published by commercial entities sometimes pay
authors for their contributions (though as with trade publications, the
fees are nowhere close to what a technical communicator would be paid
for the same time investment), but those published by professional
organizations usually do not pay contributors. Professional magazines
often have their own staff writers who are responsible for much of the
publication's content. Many magazines are at least partially subsidized
by advertising, but some are not. Most depend on subscription sales or
organization dues to defray publication costs.

The articles in most professional magazines are not peer reviewed, but
they are sometimes subject to more rigorous review by content editors
than are the articles in trade publications.

Libraries do subscribe to professional magazines whose content is of
interest to their patrons, and libraries tend to keep back issues for a
period of time, though often they dispose of copies more than a few
years old. Libraries do this because the shelf life of information in
professional magazines tends to be shorter than that of articles in
journals since magazines tend to focus on practice-related topics of
current interest, and interests change fairly frequently.

WHY PEOPLE WRITE FOR JOURNALS

People who write journal articles, whatever their field, do it to
advance the profession, make a reputation for themselves, and engage in
dialog with their colleagues on topics that interest them. It's
primarily an intellectual pursuit. No one in any field that I'm familiar
with expects to generate income from their journal articles, at least
not directly. However, folks in academe benefit indirectly since tenure
decisions, promotions, and raises in salary are directly based on their
publishing in peer-reviewed journals. Many folks who work for top
companies in industry get bonuses and raises based on their publication
in peer-reviewed journals.

None of the four journals on technical communication published by
US-based professional organizations (STC, IEEE, ACM, ATTW) pay their
contributors. I don't believe that the two big commercially published
US/UK-based journals in technical communication pay contributors either,
though I'm not certain about that.

This is the case not only in our field but in the others I'm familiar
with, including engineering and science. I am not really familiar with
the operation of medical and legal journals, but if I had to bet, I'd
guess that they don't pay contributors either. 

EDITORIAL COMMENT

Some people may not like the situation I've described here, and they're
certainly entitled to their opinions on the subject. And people are
certainly entitled to their opinions about the various organizations
that publish journals in our field. Some contributors to this list are
not the least bit reluctant to share their opinions about those
organizations. 

But no one should mistake opinions for facts. We wouldn't last very long
as technical communicators if our descriptions of how to operate
software were based on our opinion of how it should work.

--George Hayhoe (george -at- ghayhoe -dot- com)

George Hayhoe Associates
Voice: +1 (803) 642-2156
Fax: +1 (803) 642-9325
http://www.ghayhoe.com

Winner, APEX 2001 Grand Award
for Publication Excellence



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