LINGUIST List 17.1810
Fri Jun 16 2006
Disc: New: Linguists and the Journals Nature, Science
Editor for this issue: Ann Sawyer
<sawyerlinguistlist.org>
Directory
1. Annie
Zaenen,
Linguists and the Journals Nature, Science
Message 1: Linguists and the Journals Nature, Science
Date: 12-Jun-2006
From: Annie Zaenen <zaenenparc.com>
Subject: Linguists and the Journals Nature, Science
A recent position by Geoff Pullum et al. (see LINGUIST List issue: http://linguistlist.org/issues/17/17-1528.html) about starlings contained the following passage: ''Within 18 hours, Nature declined to publish the letter. (In our experience, this is what usually happens when linguists write to general science journals like Nature and Science commenting on the content of papers with linguistic content that have been published by non-linguists.) ''
This is a rather annoying issue and maybe one that linguists should pay more attention to.
I ignore how Nature operates but the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS, http://www.aaas.org/) has a section Z on ''Linguistics and Language Science''. Nevertheless linguists have very little presence in the AAAS world. Section Z has very few members compared to other sections (and most members are not 'straight' linguists but people that most likely have a subscription to Science for another reason and a subsidiary interest in linguistics.) The activities that Science organizes also tend to be expensive for linguists (given there is little that is of direct interest to them) but all this should not give Science (or Nature) a license to misrepresent linguistic issues. Does anybody see a way to get a better hearing from them given our low participation in their activities?
I was for three years on the nominating board of section Z but I haven't figured out how the elected chair, the members at large and the Council delegates might influence what appears in the Journal. Also these officers rarely communicate with the linguistic community at large or, as far as my experience goes, with the members of section Z. But there seems to be a change in this pattern: the upcoming LSA Bulletin will contain a note from the current steering committee drawing attention to the existence of AAAS Z. The minimal thing we could do is bring up the publication issue with them.
Annie Zaenen
Linguistic Field(s): Not Applicable
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