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Help on Posting to LINGUIST


LINGUIST List is a list 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.
In an effort to improve the usefulness of the site, LINGUIST has undergone extensive technical design changes in the last couple of years. You may now submit your messages for posting by web form. Your posting on LINGUIST List will then be searchable by keywords, linguistic subfield, and/or subject language. If for some reason you are unable to use the web form, send your posting to LINGUIST as an e-mail message in plain text format to linguist linguistlist.org.


Current topics

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

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.

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.

Media - These are 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.

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.
Software - We announce new software 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
pubslinguistlist.org .

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 submit your messages for posting by web 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.
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.
All - With the exception of obituaries, the All topic is reserved for messages from LINGUIST to its subscribers.
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 submisions, and, if possible, an address or URL for more information.
Confs (Conferences) - A conference posting may include all 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 LINGUIST subscriber.
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?)

Dissertation abstracts - We post dissertation abstracts where the abstract is confined to no more than 4000 characters. This is the equivalent of 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.
Jobs - Jobs 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.)
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.
LINGUIST List's General Policies

Archival 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.
  • In general, we do not post commercial advertisements.
  • 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

Page Updated: 11-Mar-2010
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