Communicated by in a journal article

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the phrase "communicated by" in journal articles, exploring the reasons why a paper might be submitted by someone other than the authors. The scope includes theoretical considerations and practical implications related to academic publishing.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Technical explanation
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants suggest that "communicated by" could indicate a translation of the work.
  • Others explain that certain journals, like those from the Royal Society or PNAS, require submissions to be made by members, leading to a member communicating papers authored by non-members.
  • One participant raises the possibility of posthumous publications and questions how revisions would be managed in such cases.
  • Another viewpoint mentions that authors with disabilities might have difficulties writing, necessitating someone else to communicate their work.
  • It is noted that the phrase may signify specific journal practices regarding the publication process, with distinctions made between "contributed by," "communicated by," and "direct submission" in PNAS, affecting acceptance rates.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express various hypotheses regarding the meaning and implications of "communicated by," with no consensus reached on a singular explanation. Multiple competing views remain regarding the reasons for this practice in academic publishing.

Contextual Notes

Some limitations include the lack of clarity on specific journal policies and the varying interpretations of the phrase across different contexts. Additionally, assumptions about the roles of members in the submission process are not universally defined.

JinM
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"Communicated by" in a journal article

Out of curiosity, why would a journal article be communicated by someone other than the author (or even authors, in some cases that I've seen)?
 
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A translation?
 


Some journals, such as the Royal Society set of journals, or PNAS, require that the papers be submitted by members, by custom. As a result, if the authors are not members of the Royal Society, or the National Academy, a member will then 'communicate' the paper to the Journal.

I didn't say it makes sense...
 


Posthumous publications?

(Although one might wonder how the revisions are handled.)
 


Another possibility is the author has a disability that makes it difficult to write.
 


dans595 said:
Another possibility is the author has a disability that makes it difficult to write.
No it's as Andy said. You don't have to put the name of the secretary who typed the paper.

Now somebody who translated the paper from those professors who have a real disability when it comes to writing - that would be useful !
 


Yeah, Andy's explanation makes sense to me. I was looking through my linear algebra professor's research articles, and a couple of them were communicated by a different person. The articles in question were published in the Proceedings of the AMS -- is that a journal that also requires membership as Andy describes?
 


Sometimes those lines signify something specific to the journal about how the article came to be published there. For example: PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) will say "contributed by <NAS member>" if that NAS member is on the author list. Or it will say "communicated by <NAS member>" if an NAS member was willing to vouch for the paper but did not themselves write it / knew the author / whatever. Some PNAS papers instead will say "this was a PNAS direct submission" that means that it was submitted normally with no NAS members involved.

I've heard that the acceptance rates are dramatically different for "contributed by", "communicated by" and "direct submission" papers...
 

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