2013Q1 Reports: CL Journal
CL Journal Report for Calendar Year 2012 Robert Dale, Editor Monday 4th February 2013
1 Highlights
Our raw submission numbers creep ever upwards: this year we received 113 new submissions, and a total of 180 submissions when resubmissions of articles originally submitted in earlier years are included. But, as we've seen over the last few years, the number of inappropriate submissions is high: in 2012 we received 55 submssions deemed unsuitable. For comparison, in 2011 we received 107 first submissions, of which 42 were considered inappropriate. As in previous years, a significant proportion of the inappropriate submissions come from India; the papers concerned are often very short (of typical conference paper length) and either outside CL's scope, or unaware of relevant literature. Last year we revised our submission guidelines in an attempt to discourage such submissions, but my suspicion is that the guidelines are simply not read.
Our average time to first decision for 2012, not including papers deemed inappropriate by the editor, was 64 days, compared with 57 days in 2011 and 58 days in 2010.
See the numbers at the end of this report for a detailed breakdown of statistics regarding submissions.
Since the beginning of 2010, we have averaged around six long articles per issue, where prior to going electronic-only and open access, the norm was four articles per issue. This increase in page count increases our costs, of course. Currently, we operate with a small number of articles in reserve, which gives us some ability to combine related articles in the same issue, and provides some insurance in case we have a temporary drying-up of material. However, articles are published (in an not-yet-proofread form) under a 'Just Accepted' tab on the MIT Press website as soon as they have been accepted for publication, so that they are accessible prior to being formally assigned to an issue.
2 Departments
2.1 Book Reviews [Report by Graeme Hirst]
Book reviews are edited by Graeme Hirst. We publish two or three reviews in each issue. In order to avoid a conflict of interest, reviews of books in the Morgan & Claypool series that Hirst edits are coordinated by our squibs editor, Pierre Isabelle, with Hirst out of the loop.
2.2 Squibs [Report by Pierre Isabelle]
At the beginning of year 2012, there were no submissions in the squibs pipeline pending from the previous year. In the course of year 2012, 10 papers were (re-) submitted as squibs. At the end of 2012, there was only one submission left in the pipeline. Thus, 11 decisions were made over the year.
The results were as follows:
* 1 paper accepted * 3 papers rejected * 5 invitations to revise and resubmit
The mean time taken for those decisions was 59 days.
As of 10 February 2013, one paper has been (re-) submitted yet to the Squibs Editor this year.
In the course of 2012, I also served as Associate Book Review Editor for three different books.
3 Administrative Matters
3.1 Editorial Handover
Paola Merlo will officially take over as editor-in-chief of the journal in mid 2013, at which point Robert Dale will step down after 10 years as editor. We are carrying out a phased handover process during the first half of 2013.
3.2 Editorial Assistance
Suzy Howlett, who essentially runs the journal, will be standing down at around the same time as I hand over to Paola. Paola is in the process of looking for a replacement editorial assistant.
4 Statistics
Here are the raw statistics referred to above.
4.1 First submissions in 2012
4.1.1 Survey proposal
Total: 8 Proposal accepted: 1 Revise and resubmit: 4 Reject: 1 Reject (not suitable): 2
4.1.2 Survey
Total: 3 Reject (not suitable): 1 -- proposal had not been submitted first Revise and resubmit: 2
4.1.3 Article
Total: 113 Revise and resubmit: 26 Reject: 22 Reject (not suitable): 55 Withdrawn: 2 No decision: 8
Average time to decision: 31 days Average time to decision (excluding "reject (not suitable)"): 64 days
4.2 Resubmission of an article from 2011 or before
4.2.1 Special Issue on Parsing Morphologically Rich Languages
Total: 6 Accept with revisions: 6
4.2.2 Article
Total: 17 Accept: 5 Accept with revisions: 1 Revise and resubmit: 11
4.3 Resubmission of an article from 2012
4.3.1 Survey proposal
Total: 5 Proposal accepted: 1 Revise and resubmit: 1 Reject: 2 Withdrawn: 1
4.3.2 Article
Total: 28 Accept: 17 Revise and resubmit: 7 Reject: 2 No decision: 2
4.4 Totals (All submissions in 2012, including special issues and survey proposals)
Total: 180 Accept: 22 Accept with revisions: 7 Revise and resubmit: 51 Reject: 27 Reject (not suitable): 58 Withdrawn: 3 No decision: 10 Proposal accepted: 2
4.4.1 Times for all submissions (incl. special issues and survey proposals)
Average time to decision: 36 days Average time to decision (excluding "reject (not suitable)"): 54 days
4.4.2 Times for all article submissions
Average time to decision: 36 days Average time to decision (excluding "reject (not suitable)"): 57 days
4.5 Country of first author
(New submissions and resubmissions from 2011 or before)
4.5.1 Articles
Australia 1 Basque Country 1 Brazil 1 Bulgaria 1 Canada 2 China 8 Egypt 2 Finland 1 France 5 Germany 4 Hong Kong 2 India 10 Indonesia 1 Iran 7 Israel 1 Italy 3 Japan 2 Jordan 2 Lebanon 1 Malaysia 4 Netherlands 1 Pakistan 4 Poland 1 Portugal 2 Russian Federation 1 Saudi Arabia 2 Spain 17 Sri Lanka 1 Sweden 3 Switzerland 2 Tunisia 3 Turkey 1 UAE 1 UK 10 Ukraine 1 US 21
TOTAL 130
4.5.2 SI PMRL
Germany 3 Israel 1 US 2
TOTAL 6
4.5.3 Survey proposals
Austria 1 Malaysia 2 Spain 1 Switzerland 1 United Arab Emirates 1 US 2
TOTAL 8
4.5.4 Survey without proposal first
Egypt 1
TOTAL 1