Using role-play to teach novice writers the expectations of journal editors and reviewers

Abstract

Abstract Academics from Pacific Rim expanding circle countries are increasingly expected to produce English language research articles. Writing for reputable journals requires an understanding of these journal editors expectations. This paper describes one way in which editors expectations have been demonstrated interactively to staff and post-graduate students at an Indonesian university. The exercise comprises a sequence of role-plays representing different steps of the manuscript review process. The material used was carefully selected from a public database to provide a manuscript that reflected participants expectations of a research article and reputable editorial and peer-review assessment of the manuscript . In each role-play participants compare their own assessments with that of real-life reviewers and editors. Agricultural Science participants assessment of the acceptability of the manuscript was closer to editors expectations as a result of the exercise (the shift from 0% to 78% agreement was significant, p