Addressing Academic Inequality: A Response in Support of Wen and Gao ROGER NUNN Senior Associate Editor Asian EFL Journal I not believe that there is any doubt about the uneven distribution of useful and transferable knowledge across the globe in academic publishing While most EFL learning will always take place in non– English speaking countries, much canonical scholarship is published in countries where English is a first language There are invisible barriers faced by all authors trying to break into the inner publishing circles I have never observed conscious discrimination, but barriers are in place within the systems of access to journals which will take decades rather than years to break down In spite of our avowed aims, I cannot exclude the Asian EFL Journal (AEJ) from this perception Viewed in this light, Wen and Gao (2007) have for me presented a carefully argued and ultimately irrefutable case in favour of opening up international journal access to work previously published in local journals in a local language I cannot see this as particularly controversial Neither I think that, interesting and innovative as the suggestion is, it will have a large or immediate impact on lowering the barriers Wen and Gao (2007) put their view strongly, stating, & In our view, this practice has little to with self-plagiarism and does not violate intellectual ethics Instead of being forbidden, it should be encouraged so as to maximize the effectiveness of academic communication and equalize the rights of creating, distributing and accessing knowledge (p 221) To this I would only add that the ‘‘academic communication’’ referred to implies intercultural communication that should by definition be multidirectional One potential barrier relates to notions of academic competence in relation to rigid views of genre It takes decades rather than years for a journal to build up an international reputation It can be expected therefore that young journals like AEJ that choose to situate themselves on the periphery have a quality problem to deal with as well as an intercultural one Authors as well as readers may feel they provide a route to an easy publication for their less important work It is therefore 694 TESOL QUARTERLY Tesol Quarterly tesol_symposium.3d 30/12/09 20:05:52 The Charlesworth Group, Wakefield +44(0)1924 369598 - Rev 7.51n/W (Jan 20 2003) important for journals like AEJ to scrutinize carefully any proposal that could hinder that elusive progress towards the quality of some inner circle journals We should also consider whether Gao and Wen are not unwittingly advocating what some authors already practice because an editorial board has no way to check for similarities across languages Some countries currently have no copyright and AEJ volunteers waste a lot of valuable review time identifying extracts of work already published elsewhere in English, and not necessarily by the same author, being submitted to our journal without acknowledgment I further believe that the strongest ethical issue raised by this debate is how to break down barriers that are hindering the development toward a more accessible academic community ‘‘The interaction among multiple sides, based on mutual respect and good intention to understand and contribute, constitutes the development of a healthy academic community.’’ (Gao & Wen, this volume.) Even given such measures, it is unlikely that such articles will actually successfully negotiate international review processes in significant numbers, so I believe that other solutions will be needed The issue of audience as raised by Hamp-Lyons (this volume) is vital Authors writing for local audiences cannot expect their article to be accepted for a totally different journal and audience without some redrafting The issue of citation and references would also need to be addressed, especially where local authors refer to and cite local articles that are themselves unavailable to reviewers Authors attempting to engage in international communication not have the luxury of addressing single audiences or communities of practice and cannot assume a single community voice The way forward to me seems to be a re-evaluation of the often rather rigid generic structure of academic research articles, through which generic conformity can so often replace intrinsic quality (title, biodata, abstract, introduction, literature review, results, discussion, conclusion, references, appendices) Despite the best intentions, AEJ still finds that, in practice, alternative voices have difficulty getting though the review stage Editors and editorial boards need to develop different, less generically rigid, review paradigms than those that currently tend to govern the review process and impose a limited view of competence Why does academic competence seem to exclude creativity, originality, and alternative (cultural) voices? The AEJ does not normally accept articles previously published elsewhere, but I can see no reason why we should not adopt this suggestion taking those precautions that Wen and Gao suggest to make sure the practice promotes healthy exchange: N The original journal would need to give its permission waiving its copyright and the original article would be acknowledged SYMPOSIUM 695 Tesol Quarterly tesol_symposium.3d 30/12/09 20:05:52 The Charlesworth Group, Wakefield +44(0)1924 369598 - Rev 7.51n/W (Jan 20 2003) N N N N Given the potential cost and the broad range of languages in Asia, the author would need to take responsibility for the translation Authors would need to make a case for publishing a previously published piece Authors would need to redraft the article, carefully considering audience and making sure they have argued the intercultural significance of their findings The article would need to pass through the review process (albeit in a modified form) to avoid being seen as a second-class publication Ultimately, given the review capacity and the competitive nature of article acceptance among popular journals (AEJ can currently accept only around 10% of submissions), I cannot help but conclude that local authors will end up in many cases having to what all published authors end up doing: adapting their writings to a particular international journal’s criteria and persisting until they succeed It is therefore incumbent on the journal itself, after due consideration of issues of quality, to adopt any innovative suggestions that will encourage the dissemination of a broader range of alternative international voices THE AUTHOR Roger Nunn has worked in language education for 33 years in seven different countries He is currently working as Professor in Communication at the Petroleum Institute in Abu Dhabi, a university specializing in engineering education and research He has been Chief Editor of the Asian EFL Journal since 2005 REFERENCE Wen, Q & Gao, Y (2007) International Journal of Applied Linguistics,17, 221–225 An Alternative Question and Possible Answers: Making Local Research Publications Accessible Internationally GWENDOLYN GONG The Chinese University of Hong Kong Hong Kong SAR, China Wen and Gao (2007) initiate a conversation on the need to publish in English language journals the translated versions of articles first & 696 TESOL QUARTERLY Tesol Quarterly tesol_symposium.3d 30/12/09 20:05:52 The Charlesworth Group, Wakefield +44(0)1924 369598 - Rev 7.51n/W (Jan 20 2003)