Hi from Germany

[howsmyenglish]

So, here I am. I flew here! On a plane! Just imagine. It's like I'm back in time, back when flying wasn't as usual and everyday as it was just one and a half years ago - at least, for me.
Anyhow, I'm here. I'm spending time with my Grandma, brother and his partner. It seems, we all of us have missed each other more than ever before. At least, I don't think we've had such a nice time together before. I just hope I won't ruin everything by telling it to the world :D
The weather is nice, I'm getting a break from the heat back home. I drove a car today! It's a first for me in Germany, and also - the car is much bigger and quite different than our car. Still, I managed it fine, and I'm quite pleased.

In academic news, I was asked to peer-review an article for a well-known journal. This is a first, too, and I am pleased that they thought me knowledgeable and trustworthy enough to do this, but the article is so bad I just want to throw my computer against the wall when I sit down to read it.
I expect I'm doing too much. I'm reading and trying to annotate it, to hint at necessary changes and such. But fact is that it just needs to be thrown away and written again, completely. And I don't believe that mere annotations will help the author do it well. But... it's so... _commonly badly done_. There are, maybe, around 70% of articles in my field, which are written similarly badly. And I feel someone needs to tell them. Am I wrong? How long should my review be? How long should I spend trying to figure out what the author wanted to say - an author, who evidently used Thesaurus for every second word to sound more scholarly. Have you had such experiences? Any advice or stories to tell? I'd be glad to have some perspective.
On the other hand, reading this article made me realize that I'm really good in my field and just as soon as I'm done with this article, I'll sit down and jot everything down that I can for my diss and I'll send it to my adviser and OMG, let me finish this just ASAP, please.

Comments

[dewline]

Safe and happy travels!

[howsmyenglish]

Thanks!

[draculard]

Yay Germany! Have fun!

As for the article — not surprised, I keep hearing from friends how bad the articles are in their academic fields, but it still puts my head in a whirl. Maybe you ARE doing too much (because let's be real, is this writer even going to listen? Someone recently asked me to edit a paper she wrote for her doctorate and for publication, and she had some SEVERE issues, and ignored every single piece of advice that I gave her. And she asked for it!!) but I 100% get the urge to fix it. I wouldn't be able to stop myself.

[howsmyenglish]

Well, I'm not sure... As a reviewer I can, I think, either recommend them not to take it at all or - for the author to try and address the issues. And even though my instinct says they won't be able to address the issues in the few weeks they have, I'm thinking... maybe, I should help and they will learn something from it? I've no idea... :/

But I do plan to have fun! Oh yeah! :D

[loganberrybunny]

There are, maybe, around 70% of articles in my field, which are written similarly badly.

I strongly suspect that to be true of most (all?) fields. Not only in academia, either: I can't count the number of times I've read pieces where the author has missed something even I would have noticed.

[howsmyenglish]

There's a huge difference between "missed something" and "just pretends to have an argument", and I'm talking about the latter :(

[corvidology]

Good to hear you're enjoying your trip.

I would say it best not to waste your time. It can also be a growth experience to have an article turned down and it be suggested they try again.

[howsmyenglish]

Thank you!

[flikkeren]

Congrats on the invite to peer review! I hear that is considered kind of an honor.

[howsmyenglish]

Is it? I thought it's considered more of a pain in the ass)))
Anyhow, as a nameless PhD student I am quite pleased they asked me.

[flikkeren]

Well, I guess it could definitely be a pain in the ass too!

[thanatos_kalos]

Hooray, travelling! :)

Yes, peer reviewing can be maddening-- I've lost track of how many terrible papers I've had to recommend rejecting. Don't waste time with the annotations; give a summary of all the problems and tell them that they need to rewrite it completely. That gives them the freedom to rethink the entire the paper in their own way, rather than trying to fit only your specifications (as a different journal may ask someone else to peer review :).

[howsmyenglish]

Thank you, you're always a great help! I am always so uncertain that even after I wrote this post, and especially after I talked to my advisor, I'm suddenly completely not sure - maybe, the article isn't that bad? Maybe, I'm too demanding? Too particular? I've got no idea! But I'll try to look at it again tomorrow... *covers head with arms*

[thanatos_kalos]

::hugs:: Yeah, I'm always very demanding (and am the same about my own work) but that's a good thing. Always be kind when giving negative feedback, but a bad paper makes the author look bad as well. You're doing this for their own good as well as the journal's good.

[howsmyenglish]

Yeah, but I'm never completely sure that I'm right. But I'm getting better at that, too! :D

[thanatos_kalos]

Excellent. :)

[kat_lair]

Yay for visiting family. I'm going to Finland next month and can't wait.

i see you've already gotten good advice on the peer-review. This isn't a student assignment that you're marking and feedbacking on. Short summary of reasons for rejection/suggestions for rethink, and reject.

[howsmyenglish]

Thank you! I finished the peer=review and got very good feedback from the editor!
And indeed - yay for visiting family!