Mentorship at Distance A new initiative of the Jo

Authors: Frans J Th Wackers Ami E Iskandrian

Publish Date: 2015/03/31

Volume: 22, Issue: 3, Pages: 403-404

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Abstract

The Journal of Nuclear Cardiology is an Englishlanguage journal that aims to reach a worldwide international audience more than 50  of the papers submitted to the Journal in 2014 were from outside the United States This is also true for most if not all major cardiology journals However only 54  of the world’s population 360 millions in 2007 is native English speaking although a comparable number 400 millions speaks English as a second language English is recognized as the lingua franca in science and businessSpeaking a foreign language is one thing but writing grammatically correct English is something else Furthermore writing in English about science and research requires yet another skill Thus nonnative speakers may be at some disadvantage when attempting to publish their scientific research in the major Englishlanguage professional journalsFor speakers of Western languages it is relatively easy to learn English as a second language because the Indo European languages are loosely related through grammar and vocabulary However for speakers from other language families it may be substantially more difficult Not only may the syntax of a language be totally different but also certain concepts that can be expressed in one language may be impossible or difficult to articulate in another languageAll manuscripts submitted to this Journal undergo peer review by experts in the field of cardiovascular imaging The task of a reviewer is not only to judge the scientific merits of a manuscript but also to critique and make suggestions on how a manuscript could be improved The presentation of data may need further clarification clearer focus and/or additional analysis All of us even the most experienced authors have felt the “pain” of a thorough review But we also have benefited from this valued process and we acknowledge that in the end our work was better because of it It is easy and regrettably done too often to reject a manuscript just because of linguistic problems For cardiovascular imaging this may mean that a sizable number of new investigators are denied publication rights and with it the impetus to submit future work and grow academicallySometimes reviewers of the Journal identify manuscripts from abroad that appear to have potential but that are not acceptable in its current form The data may seem to be sound and valuable but the “packaging” is poor Such manuscripts may benefit from substantial editing and rewriting The problem does not always consist of language issues but can encompass also other shortcomings such as failure to state a clear purpose of study improper analysis and presentation of data and suboptimal scholarly discussion The Journal now offers authors of selected manuscripts the opportunity to work under the mentorship of experienced authors to improve their manuscript The reality is that reviewers and editors do not have the time to do the mentoring on routine basis and therefore an independent committee was deemed necessaryThus far several manuscripts have gone through the “Mentorship at Distance” program This turned out to be an interesting and rewarding experience for both the authors and the mentor As was to be expected some manuscripts were at the end not salvageable but others improved sufficiently and were accepted for publication

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