Am I getting grumpier or are academic getting lazier? Or both? This morning I had to write an email in my role as one of the editors of The Journal of Asian Midwives to a group of authors somewhere in South Asia with the following text:
‘I don’t think you have read the author instructions for our journal. The Journal of Asian Midwives is interested in promoting midwifery and maternity care in South Asia. Your article is about a different profession ‘nursing’ and worse it mentions neither midwifery, maternity care nor pregnancy. This manuscript is not appropriate for our academic journal.
Moreover, in terms of style, I am not impressed by an email addressed to me which ends with the following:
Best regards,
[Your Full Name]
[Your Affiliation]
[Your Contact Information]
[Enclosures: Main Document, First Page, Cover Letter]
Please, try (1) submitting to a nursing journal and (2) have a bit less of an AI-generated cover letter.
Yours, not impressed,
Prof. Dr. Edwin van Teijlingen