To Write or Not to Write With Discipline? Writing Error-Based Predictors of Editor's Decision of Manuscripts Submitted to a Journal

• In Event: 67.056 - Important Issues for Faculty Teaching Educational Research Courses

Abstract

Much has been written about the importance of writing with discipline in order to increase the publishability of manuscripts submitted to journals for consideration for publication. More specifically, empirical evidence has been provided that links American Psychological Association (APA) errors, citation errors, reference list errors, and grammatical errors to manuscript rejection by the editor. However, each of these types of writing errors has been studied in isolation. Thus, in this study, we analyzed simultaneously these 4 sets of errors in 56 manuscripts submitted to the journal Research in the Schools over a 3-year period. Number of reference list errors was the best predictor of manuscript disposition, followed by number of APA errors. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Authors

• Eunjin Hwang, Sam Houston State University

• Anthony J. Onwuegbuzie, Sam Houston State University