From Gatekeeping to Brokerage: A Collaborative Ethnography of Editorial Work in International English as a Foreign Language Journals.
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| Title: | From Gatekeeping to Brokerage: A Collaborative Ethnography of Editorial Work in International English as a Foreign Language Journals. |
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| Authors: | Le, Thanh Thao1 (AUTHOR) thaole@ctu.edu.vn, Phuong, Hoang Yen1 (AUTHOR), Pham, Trut Thuy2 (AUTHOR) |
| Source: | Learned Publishing. Apr2026, Vol. 39 Issue 2, p1-11. 11p. |
| Subjects: | English as a foreign language, Translating & interpreting, Professional peer review, Applied linguistics, Scholarly periodicals, Identity (Psychology), Editorial writing |
| Abstract: | Editors are often cast as gatekeepers who police the boundaries of knowledge. Yet in non‐Anglophone settings, editorial practice is also translational, relational and identity‐forming. We present a collaborative ethnography by a three‐member authorship team, including two women and one man, who simultaneously served in editorial roles across international, English‐medium journals in English as a foreign language (EFL)/applied linguistics. Drawing on fieldnotes, decision letters, reviewer exchanges, platform logs and reflexive journals, we theorise editorial brokerage: the day‐to‐day mediations through which editors translate standards across epistemic traditions, mobilise networks to calibrate judgement and negotiate role/time frictions within teaching‐intensive institutions. We integrate sociocultural theory and communities of practice to propose the Editorial Brokerage Cycle: linking tensions, mediations, identity work and outcomes. Findings are organised as five ethnographic vignettes, including decision letters as pedagogical genre, epistemic translation, reviewer ecologies, temporal/role frictions and becoming an editor. Each ends with a micro‐proposition. Key Points: Editorial work in international EFL journals is not only gatekeeping, but it is also editorial brokerage: translational, relational and identity work that helps make locally grounded scholarship legible to international audiences without lowering standards.Decision letters matter as mediational tools. Letters that first name the paper's claim and required argument‐level revisions, before surface corrections, produced faster and more coherent revisions in most revise‐and‐resubmit cases.Many apparent 'language problems' were actually problems of epistemic translation. Authors benefited when editors prompted them to clarify the claim, position local constructs for wider readers and guide interpretation of results.Reviewer ecologies shape judgement quality. Pairing complementary reviewers and separating contribution clarity from methodological adequacy generated clearer reviewer convergence and shorter decision times than ad hoc reviewer selection.Editorial brokerage also emerged as an identity trajectory: through shared templates, reviewer networks and debriefing, editors developed a clearer, more confident and more care‐attuned editorial voice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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| Database: | Engineering Source |
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| Abstract: | Editors are often cast as gatekeepers who police the boundaries of knowledge. Yet in non‐Anglophone settings, editorial practice is also translational, relational and identity‐forming. We present a collaborative ethnography by a three‐member authorship team, including two women and one man, who simultaneously served in editorial roles across international, English‐medium journals in English as a foreign language (EFL)/applied linguistics. Drawing on fieldnotes, decision letters, reviewer exchanges, platform logs and reflexive journals, we theorise editorial brokerage: the day‐to‐day mediations through which editors translate standards across epistemic traditions, mobilise networks to calibrate judgement and negotiate role/time frictions within teaching‐intensive institutions. We integrate sociocultural theory and communities of practice to propose the Editorial Brokerage Cycle: linking tensions, mediations, identity work and outcomes. Findings are organised as five ethnographic vignettes, including decision letters as pedagogical genre, epistemic translation, reviewer ecologies, temporal/role frictions and becoming an editor. Each ends with a micro‐proposition. Key Points: Editorial work in international EFL journals is not only gatekeeping, but it is also editorial brokerage: translational, relational and identity work that helps make locally grounded scholarship legible to international audiences without lowering standards.Decision letters matter as mediational tools. Letters that first name the paper's claim and required argument‐level revisions, before surface corrections, produced faster and more coherent revisions in most revise‐and‐resubmit cases.Many apparent 'language problems' were actually problems of epistemic translation. Authors benefited when editors prompted them to clarify the claim, position local constructs for wider readers and guide interpretation of results.Reviewer ecologies shape judgement quality. Pairing complementary reviewers and separating contribution clarity from methodological adequacy generated clearer reviewer convergence and shorter decision times than ad hoc reviewer selection.Editorial brokerage also emerged as an identity trajectory: through shared templates, reviewer networks and debriefing, editors developed a clearer, more confident and more care‐attuned editorial voice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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| ISSN: | 09531513 |
| DOI: | 10.1002/leap.2053 |
