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LINGUIST Posting Policies


LINGUIST List is a mailing list and website primarily for academic linguists; the following posting policies were developed with this audience in mind. In general, we post only messages with substantial linguistic content or with content which will be of wide interest within the discipline. On this page you will find information such as current posting topics and where to submit them, guidelines for each topic, and LINGUIST's general policies regarding posting.
Announcements can be posted via the online form. For questions, contact us at linguist Linguist List linguistlist.org.
Current topics

Click the name of the individual topic for more specific information and examples.

All - With the exception of obituaries, the All topic is reserved for messages from LINGUIST to its subscribers.
Books and TOCs (Tables of Contents)- We are happy to post publishers' announcements of new books and journals of interest to linguists, but we ask that these announcements follow certain guidelines. If you wish to do this, you should contact the book announcement editor at pubs Linguist List linguistlist.org . (Are you a publisher not yet posting to LINGUIST?)

Calls - Announcements from organizers of conferences, workshops, or journals asking for submissions of papers or abstracts. These should include the relevant information about the conference/workshop/journal, submission guidelines, deadline for submissions, and, if possible, an address or URL for more information.
Confs (Conferences) - A conference posting may include all of the information about a conference, including location, schedule, papers being presented, keynote speakers, URL of the conference, and even a registration form which could be printed out by a reader.
Disc (Discussion) - Readers may submit a question, hypothesis, or issue for debate and discussion by fellow linguists. These must be linguistically relevant and professional in tone, as well as free from political content, personal attacks, or heated rhetoric. Messages may be lightly edited by the moderator,when necessary. If more extensive editing is necessary, the message will be returned to the sender, along with suggestions for modification. Discussions may be ended at the discretion of the moderators; a "last call" notice is always given.

Dissertation abstracts - Scholars may post their dissertation abstracts to the list. Abstracts may be no more than 4000 characters, or about 500 words. Due to constraints imposed by the database, this limitation is not flexible. Dissertation abstracts are not only posted to the email list; they are also stored in our web-searchable index of dissertations.
FYI - FYIs inform the list of new information or resources. Some examples are: a notice of available research grants, a new university linguistics program, a new web site, new resources available (i.e., corpora, references), or new experiments. Calls for Papers for books and working papers series are also posted as FYIs.

Internships - The LINGUIST List has created an online internships registry, enabling researchers and institutions to announce paid or unpaid internships available specifically for linguists. Internship listings are also posted to the mailing list.

Jobs - Job postings are from institutions and organizations who are seeking a linguist for a specific job. It is generally accepted that job postings to LINGUIST be accompanied by a 125 USD per job ad posted. Jobs postings are NOT a way to post your resume to LINGUIST List. Due to the large amount of mail which we receive, LINGUIST does not deal with job-seeking postings. (Note: announcements of student support should be posted under Support.)
Media - This topic contains announcements of linguistics in the news. Examples: an upcoming guest appearance of a linguist on a TV or radio program; an article in a magazine or newspaper, or a film that deals with some linguistic issue.

Noticeboard - The Notice Board contains information that facilitates professional activities but may not be of interest to all LINGUIST subscribers, such as finding housing near a linguistics conference, searching for contact information for a former colleague, searching for or selling linguistics books, or even seeking translation services.

Qs (Queries) - This topic is reserved for questions submitted by professional linguists (as opposed to the general public), usually designed to gather information which would aid the sender in his/her research. Senders should use the following guidelines when submitting a query:

  • State what research you have already done on your topic; this will help the prospective respondents.
  • Try to phrase your question to include specific questions or problems.
  • If there is some reason why you have not been able to locate the resources you request, please let us know that, as well.
  • Please note that the information gathered should be summarized and submitted, along with acknowledgement of those who contributed, to LINGUIST in the form of a Summary.


Non-research questions from the general public may be submitted to a panel of linguists via our Ask-A Linguist facility.
Reviews - These are reviews written by LINGUIST readers about books that have been announced on LINGUIST. Reviewers are chosen by the Review Editors. Guidelines and submission instructions are found at the Reviews index page.
Software - Announcements in this area are for new software that is useful to professional linguists. Along with information regarding the name of the software and its linguistic applications, submitters should include information about which version is being announced, the developer of the software, platform compatibility, licensing information, Unicode compliancy, and import/export formats. Announcements for software that are of no cost to users may be announced for free; otherwise LINGUIST will charge a posting fee of $125 USD. Please see our Guidelines for Announcing Publications, or contact our Publications Team at pubs linguistlist.org for more information.
Sums (Summaries) - After an appropriate amount of time, the sender of a query submits a summary of the responses received from the list via the online form. This should be an overview of responses rather than merely a collection of messages reprinted verbatim. It is, however, appropriate to acknowledge and thank, individually, those who responded. Due to constraints imposed by the database, there is a 4000 character (about 500 word) limit. You may, however, submit a "Summary Part 2", if necessary.
Summer School and Training Course Registry The summer school and training course registry allows Institutions and Organizations to announce summer school or other training courses. These announcements are posted to the list and housed in our database of summer school announcements. Announcements may include a description of the summer school, the focus, information about the courses being taught, location, URL of the event, registration information, tuition cost, and any financial aid avaliable.

Support - This topic is for announcements of any opportunity for students which is aimed at supporting their efforts to gain a degree, including graduate assistantships. Post-docs are not included in this topic. They are posted as jobs since in many countries they have the status of professional employment.
LINGUIST List's General Policies

There are three general requirements for posting to LINGUIST

  • Linguistic Relevance: the message must contain substantial linguistic content, as opposed to, for example, literary or computational.
  • Global Relevance: the message must be relevant to linguists everywhere, and should not target only those in a specific locality.
  • Academic Relevance: the message should have a wide interest in the linguistic community, and the writer should be well-informed about the topic being discussed. Content should not be too basic, redundant, or easily referenced.
The LINGUIST List site and mailing list provide online distribution of user-submitted information. The user-submitted information does not necessarily reflect the views of LINGUIST List nor does the LINGUIST List assume any responsibility or liability arising from the user-submitted information.
Archiving of Posted Material

The LINGUIST List, a U.S. Library of Congress registered journal (ISSN: 1068 - 4875), is devoted to the principle of free access to information for all its readers. Concommitant with that ideal, every issue that LINGUIST posts for distribution to subscribers is retained in a permanent online archive. In addition, The LINGUIST List provides hosting and archival services to over 100 other linguistics-related mailing lists.


Editor Approval
All postings are subject to editor approval. Nothing is mailed to the subscriber list - or appears on the website - until an editor has reviewed and approved the submission. This process should not take longer than 48 hours, and it usually happens within 24 hours. We occasionally do light editing of messages to bring them into conformity with our policies. Since returning a message to the sender for editing retards the ongoing discussion we do this only if more substantial editing is needed.


General Posting Policies

  • We do not post messages which are political in nature, or include calls to action of any kind. LINGUIST has subscribers from over 100 different countries, who are drawn together solely by their interest in linguistics. We try to respect that orientation by avoiding discussion of national or international politics, since such discussion not only detracts from the primary purpose of the list but also tends to be of interest only to subscribers within the affected countries.
  • We discourage discussion so heated that it may be construed as personal, as we feel that a professional tone is conducive to academic inquiry--as well as to the comfort of the greatest number of subscribers. For similar reasons, we do not post complaints against, or disparagement of, named individuals and institutions. Since it is impossible for us to check the validity of negative allegations, we prefer not to be responsible for broadcasting these to the linguistic community.
  • Our resources do not allow us to announce existing linguistics programs and fellowships via the email list, although we do announce new ones. Instead, we encourage existing programs to register in our searchable programs database.

Problems
If you have a question about a submission that has not been posted within 48 hours, you should e-mail your concerns directly to linguist Linguist List linguistlist.org.