What Do Journals Mean? A Genre-Based Analysis of “Instructions for Authors” in Linguistic Journals

Abstract

This study investigates the communication from journal editors to authors in the context of academic publishing. More specifically, it tries to uncover the "black box" of how journal editors achieve their communicative purposes through their online Instructions For Authors (IFA). By using a self-constructed IFA corpus consisting of 25 IFAs in linguistic journals with high impact factor, and a self-modified threefold analytical framework, this study identifies three key communicative purposes of journal editors through the IFA: stipulating submission requirements, sharing information, and journal promotion. The findings also suggest that stipulating submission requirements is the major purposes realized through all the forms of communication within the analytical framework, while the other two purposes are not equally valued by editors. This study also explores the possibility of power play in terms of the social role of journal editors and their authors. The results of this study are expected to have theoretical as well as practical implications for both journal editors and authors.