Thanks for the suggestion, Rachel. You are right about the Gold Open Access fee.  I have by now addressed the misunderstanding with the editorial team member and intend to address the weakness highlighted by a reviewer, as the reviewer had intended, in preparation for publication. 

Best wishes
Margaret

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dr Margaret MacDougall
Medical Statistician and Researcher in Education
(Senior Lecturer)
Centre for Population Health Sciences
College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine
Teviot Place
University of Edinburgh
Edinburgh EH8 9AG

Email: [log in to unmask]
Tel: +44(0)131 650 3211
Fax: +44(0)131 650 6909
Personal profile: http://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/margaret-macdougall


-- 
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Scotland, with registration number SC005336.


-----Original Message-----
From: Online forum for SEDA, the Staff & Educational Development Association [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Rachel Forsyth
Sent: 09 March 2018 08:20
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Concern about journal editorial assistant's behaviour

Perhaps Margaret is publishing in a journal with Gold Open Access charges?

https://www.dur.ac.uk/research.innovation/outputs/openaccess/oafaq/gold/

On any case, it sounds like a misunderstanding from a busy editorial team, and that either the comments didn't come through or, as others have pointed out, it was perfect as it was!

Rachel

Dr R Forsyth
Associate Head
Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching 1st Floor, All Saints Manchester Metropolitan University Manchester M15 6BG

[log in to unmask]
+44 (0) 161 247 1128

rachel.forsyth (Skype)
@rmforsyth (Twitter)

http://www.celt.mmu.ac.uk/
Editor-in-Chief, Student Engagement in Higher Education journal


________________________________________
From: Online forum for SEDA, the Staff & Educational Development Association [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Perrin, Hannah [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 09 March 2018 08:12
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Concern about journal editorial assistant's behaviour

Hello Margaret (and all),
It's worth a quick check of Beall's list (https://beallslist.weebly.com/), which lists publishers known to be predatory.  If you put the publisher in the search box at the top it'll flag if there are concerns.
Happy Friday!
Hannah


Dr H C Perrin
Senior Developer in Veterinary Education Royal Veterinary College, London

From: Online forum for SEDA, the Staff & Educational Development Association [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of MACDOUGALL Margaret
Sent: 08 March 2018 17:31
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Concern about journal editorial assistant's behaviour

I am not quite sure what you mean, Celia; sorry.  There are many journals for which a publication processing fee is required once any minor revisions have been completed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dr Margaret MacDougall
Medical Statistician and Researcher in Education (Senior Lecturer) Centre for Population Health Sciences College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine Teviot Place University of Edinburgh Edinburgh EH8 9AG

Email: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Tel: +44(0)131 650 3211
Fax: +44(0)131 650 6909
Personal profile: http://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/margaret-macdougall

From: Celia Popovic [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 08 March 2018 17:24
To: MACDOUGALL Margaret <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>; [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Subject: RE: Concern about journal editorial assistant's behaviour

HI Margaret
Is 'pay and revise' literal or figurative? If you are being asked to pay to publish your work and it is about higher education, I would be very dubious.
I am not aware of many (if any) reputable journals charging to publish articles All the best Celia

From: Online forum for SEDA, the Staff & Educational Development Association <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> On Behalf Of MACDOUGALL Margaret
Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2018 12:12 PM
To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Concern about journal editorial assistant's behaviour

Hi Liz and Corony

Thanks for your replies. The manuscript had reached the 'pay and revise' stage which, as the sequence of events for manuscript selection and publication listed on the journal website makes clear,  renders it beyond the stage of a further review. I have replied politely to the editorial assistant and am awaiting a response. The journal does not have a managing editor; otherwise, I would have touched base with them by now and would have been able to have the kind of chat, Corony, which you wisely suggested.

From what I can see, all that is left to be done by myself is to de-anonymize the content. However, this has not been specified in the feedback I received.

Best wishes

Margaret

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dr Margaret MacDougall
Medical Statistician and Researcher in Education (Senior Lecturer) Centre for Population Health Sciences College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine Teviot Place University of Edinburgh Edinburgh EH8 9AG

Email: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Tel: +44(0)131 650 3211
Fax: +44(0)131 650 6909
Personal profile: http://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/margaret-macdougall

From: Liz Thomson [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 08 March 2018 12:23
To: MACDOUGALL Margaret <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>; [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Concern about journal editorial assistant's behaviour


Dear Margaret - it does seem very strange. I suspect I would ask for further clarification from the Editor in charge as I think that there is a misunderstanding on the part of the Editorial Assistant. I think you could also ask that they contact the original reviewer to ask if there were any revisions that he / she wanted but were - for some reason - omitted from the feedback. Certainly the section under 'weaknesses' gives you no room for revision. Does the journal work on a single review system rather than double peer review?



Sorry that I am unable to help further.






Liz Thomson
Assistant Editor
Innovations In Education & Teaching International (IETI).


________________________________
From: Online forum for SEDA, the Staff & Educational Development Association <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> on behalf of MACDOUGALL Margaret <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Sent: 08 March 2018 10:00
To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Concern about journal editorial assistant's behaviour


Hello



I am looking for some advice from experienced journal editors rather urgently.



In the report for the decision I had received for a paper I had submitted to an international journal, there were no recommendations for change. On a Likert scale, the paper was highly rated by the reviewer and editor. Under 'Suggestions to Author/s', I received the feedback: 'Overall, this is a very interesting paper with extensive coverage of the issues highlighted. It would be worth publishing and has potential to contribute to existing knowledge.'



However, as the paper was assigned the category 'Accept submission, revisions required; please revise the paper according to comments', I responded,



'I would be grateful for the opportunity to clarify what exactly is required of me at this stage. I have read the attached feedback. It seems from the checklist on p.2 under "Comments and Suggestions" that since none of the items on the checklist have been ticked, none of them apply to me. Am I correct in my understanding here? I have assumed so given that the above header also includes the text "(None of the following is required)". However, under "Decision of Paper Selection", I have been advised to "revise the paper according to [the] comments". I have therefore looked for the relevant comments on p. 3. Under "Suggestions to Author/s", no recommendations for changes are provided and the paper is recommended for publication. There is one section prior to this entitled "Weaknesses". This section contains the content "..." Is this the single comment I am to engage with in order to take the paper to the publication stage?'



I am concerned about the fairness of the editorial assistant's response, which was as follows: 'Do you mind wait for another few days? I will rearrange your paper to other reviewers for review. Please inform us of your decision.'



What rights as an author do I have at this stage?



I should add that this message is of relevance to our group members as the journal is within the field of education.



Best wishes
Margaret



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dr Margaret MacDougall

Medical Statistician and Researcher in Education (Senior Lecturer)

Centre for Population Health Sciences

College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine

Teviot Place

University of Edinburgh

Edinburgh EH8 9AG



Email: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>

Tel: +44(0)131 650 3211

Fax: +44(0)131 650 6909

Personal profile: http://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/margaret-macdougall



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