Understanding the needs of international authors

Research and scholarly publication are global endeavors, and English-language journals are receiving more and more manuscript submissions from international authors. A better understanding of the challenges faced by researchers who are not native English speakers will enable journal publishers to improve the process of submission for all authors, ensuring that the best papers are published in an efficient manner. We surveyed a sample of international researchers to determine what they perceived as challenges inherent to submission to English-language journals and found that they desire assistance with manuscript formatting and responding to reviewers, as well as clear policies about pre-submission inquiries and conflicts of interest. Taking into account these survey results and the experience our company has with international authors, we suggest several small changes to a journal's website, including clearer English and prominent links to select policies and guidelines, that may greatly simplify the submission process for second language authors.