Introduction Running an academic journal sounds prestigious. The title alone conjures images of tweed jackets, intellectual debates, and thoughtful peer reviews. But ask anyone who has actually managed one, and you’ll quickly get a different story. Behind the formal editorials and polished PDFs lies a chaotic machine of unpaid labor, technical bottlenecks, and bureaucratic gymnastics. … Read more
Introduction The em dash ( — ) is one of those punctuation marks that writers either love, hate, or abuse. Depending on your editorial style guide, it might be hailed as a tool for stylistic flair or condemned as a lazy alternative to proper punctuation. But few people ever stop to ask: Where did this … Read more
Introduction Editorial policies are the invisible scaffolding of scholarly publishing. They determine what gets published, how peer review operates, how conflicts are managed, and how journals respond to ethical breaches. In short, they are the backbone of trust in academic communication. Yet many editorial policies haven’t been revised in years. Some haven’t even been read … Read more
Introduction Publishing as a profession predates copyright, printing presses, and even universities. Before Amazon upended the game, before Penguin paperbacks reshaped access to books, and well before anyone started worrying about open access or AI-generated textbooks, publishing was already a centuries-old trade. Some publishers today are older than the countries in which they operate. A … Read more
Introduction If academic writing had a VIP list, the literature review would be right at the top. It’s not the flashiest part of a thesis or paper, and it rarely gets quoted in the media, but it holds the scaffolding together. A literature review is the scholarly world’s equivalent of checking the map before heading … Read more