rcrocket wrote:
I don't speak for FARMS Review but I have been through its editorial process, as well as the editorial process for other journals.
Articles arriving at FARMS Review are solicited and unsolicited.
Oh, they are? Because according to the "Submission Guidelines" (such as they are), there really isn't such a thing as an "unsolicited"
FARMS Review publication.
Articles in both the solicited and unsolicited category may be rejected if they are inadequate, can't be fixed, or do not survive peer review.
Or, if they don't adhere rigidly to Church orthodoxy.
FARMS Review articles undergo peer review, although the eclectic nature of the articles call for differing rigor. For instance, my two articles were historical pieces and they were reviewed by history professors as well as undergoing approximately 12 months of cite-checking for both articles combined.
Now, this is odd. How would you know that "history professors" reviewed your articles, Bob, if the journal uses normative peer review? Or are you just assuming? Further, if they put in "12 months of cite-checking," then they apparently did a shoddy job, since they overlooked that embarrassing elipsis in your MMM article.
I suspect that the articles that don't produce much original material, or are mere didactic essays undergo little review. Just a suspicion.
Yes, I suspect this as well. I suspect that those authors who are chummy with the Editor in Chief are basically given carte blanche to pop off essentially at will.
Peer reviewers are selected just like any other ideological journal.
This just doesn't seem to be the case, Bob. Peer reviewers at typical academic journals are selected on the basis of expertise, rather than loyalty to Church orthodoxy, or, perhaps more accurately, loyalty to LDS apologetics.
If a 50-page article comes in reviewing a work on the LDS view of the Constitution, I imagine that the editors would call their buddies who have some expertise in constitutional law and such. If the Review is like other journals I've worked on there is no "stable" of "go-to" peer reviewers.
Sure. And in the case of
FARMS Review, this "stable" is a "cabal" of Church "yes-men." Really, it seems transparently obvious that the reviewers are selected primarily for their sympathy to apologetics, rather than their expertise.
I am interested in your comment that Bushman has condemned FARMS Review for its style. I too have criticized FARMS Review for the same thing on occasion, but I would be interested in your cite to Bushman.
This isn't the one I'm thinking of (perhaps someone else can find it; I recall seeing it on an old ZLMB post), but this shows Bushman's concern with FARMS's "one-sidedness":
Richard Bushman wrote:The work of the great apologetic organizations, FARMS and FAIR, is less effective because they only give one side of the picture. Looking through their eyes, you don’t see the debates as a fair-minded outsider would coming to the subject.
http://www.bycommonconsent.com/2007/03/ ... n-part-ii/