Seeking Comments on a Draft: A Question of Etiquette

Posted at the request of a friend who is a law professor:

"I want to hear from law profs about the etiquette of asking faculty at other (higher ranked) schools to read and comment on article drafts being prepared for submission.  Is it important that the author actually KNOW the person before asking him or her to review an article draft?  Or to have some excuse for soliciting input (i.e., the article cites/discusses his or her work)?  Or is it OK to ask anyone in the relevant field, expecting that many will simply decline or be unresponsive?"  

Comments

[Orin Kerr]

I think it's okay to ask anyone in the field who has written in that area, with the expectation that some will decline or not respond. Also, I would follow the usual practice of first sending an e-mail asking if it's okay, and only sending on the article if the person agrees to take a look.

[Jacqui Lipton]

I agree with Orin. That's pretty much what I did when I was new in my field and didn't know many senior people personally. I was surprised at how many people did respond and were very helpful with my early draft papers.

[anon junior]

Getting folks to read or comment on my work is something I have really struggled with. No senior person (with one exception at my one institution) has ever given me comments on a draft... not at my institution... not at others.. not folks in my field... not friends... not even people who volunteered to do so.

if it weren't for my junior colleagues, no one would be giving me feedback

perhaps this is just a plea to senior people to read a piece or two each year... is that too much to ask?

[Orin Kerr]

Anon Junior,

Just to give us an idea of what's happening, can you give us an idea of how many senior people have you contacted to ask them to read a draft, and what kind of filter you used to figure out who to contact? (On the latter, were you contacting senior people who had written on the topic, or were you just contacting senior people generally?)

One approach that I think probably works is to go to the AALS in January and try to meet people in your field. Mention your draft, and discuss it with them. Then you can follow up and send them a draft. It won't always work -- nothing always works, and lots of people are extremely busy -- but it probably works more often than other approaches.

[Orin Kerr]

One more thought re contacting "senior people." In my experience, there are some senior people who rarely read drafts, others that are delighted to, and some that are catch-as-catch can. Also, there are some whose inboxes are flooded with drafts, and others that aren't. Also, some article topics naturally lend themselves to comments, as they're broadly interesting; others don't, as they're pretty particular methodologically or otherwise too broad or too narrow to engage the reader easily. So you should never expect that any particular person will read and comment on a draft: But over time, you can usually get some comments if you try.

[anon junior]

First, I contacted people at my institution assigned to me my mentors -- 4 people [too busy]

Next, I contacted people who write in my area who I actually know and have worked with in some way -- 8 people [no response]

Next, I followed up with people who heard me speak at conferences and volunteered (at the conference) to read my work -- 3 [said yes, but then couldn't find time]

I have also in the past asked folks in my general field, but writing on slightly different stuff but that has been more haphazard

I sent these out as individual requests, not mass e-mails. I am a nice person, I promise.

Thanks for the thoughts. All suggestions welcome.

[Jacqui Lipton]

Anon junior: Is there a time issue here? eg are you asking people to read drafts within a particular timeframe or just generally to give comments whenever they can? If the latter, I'd be more concerned that no one is making the time. Also, is there someone at your school you can talk to re your assigned mentors not reading your work, and perhaps is there a possibility of changing mentors?

[Matt Lister]

I have sometimes had luck with contacting senior people that I didn't otherwise know and getting some comments by asking them to focus on fairly small parts of a paper, saying something like, "I focus on your argument in paper X on pages ii-vii in this paper. I'd be very pleased and grateful if you'd be willing to take a look to see if you think I've got your argument correct, and any other thoughts you might have on my treatment of it." Sometimes people read the whole thing and give more comments, but this way people know what to focus on, if they are short on time. But I should admit that I've sometimes fallen down on giving comments to people who have asked me for them, and sometimes have even read papers, wrote comments on the physical paper, and then not typed them up, so I can see very well how such things can happen. Sometimes it's just bad luck not getting them.

[Mary Dudziak]

For anon junior: just a note to say that you are not alone, and it doesn't sound as if there is anything amiss in the way you are approaching people. Your colleagues at your school should certainly be reading your work. But sometimes our closest colleagues don't come through. When I was very junior, after a similar disappointment, I figured out who I could rely on. I would still give drafts to the folks who had committed to reading but hadn't. But I didn't count on them any more.

It sounds as if you need an ally within your institution. You might ask your Associate Dean for help. Or perhaps the senior person who did read your work. Try to cultivate a senior colleague who will go to bat for you when you need it. If you don't find that at your school, then it's more important to go to conferences and get to know other senior scholars in your field.

With your disappointing colleagues -- my advice is not to write them off. You need them as colleagues and friends for reasons unrelated to your scholarship. And maybe for one or more of them, the timing wasn't right, and they might give you comments at a different time, or maybe with your next project.

BTW, especially when junior, I was never as comfortable as Jacqui and Orin at sending around my work to folks outside my institution. I only did it when I was specifically engaging a scholar's work. But in my field, there are opportunities to present papers at conferences, which is an excellent way to get good feedback. Often the best way to get a particular senior person to engage your work is to invite them to serve as a commentator on a panel that you're presenting on -- e.g. at the Law & Society Assn. And presenting your work at a faculty workshop at your school is a great way to get your colleagues to focus on your work.

[Marc DeGirolami]

I'm a junior person and I've sometimes experienced what anon junior describes, but I also have often gotten great comments when I didn't expect to.

To anon junior (in case it might be helpful): I usually don't just send to people who write specifically in my field. I'll send to people whom I don't know personally but whose writing I admire and think might be interested in the topic (maybe they've written a long blog post about a related issue) and I'll try to refer to the connection. I've found this can be a nice way to make broader contacts across the legal academy than limiting myself to those who write in my specific area.

[Jacqueline Lipton]

Mary makes excellent points about using conference panels such as Law and Society (and AALS if you can make the right contacts) to get to know folks and have them comment on your work. But it does sound to me like there's a serious institutional problem at your school if you have four mentors, none of whom is actually helping you so I also agree with the points re finding a senior person within the institution who can help you and go to bat for you.

[Lev Elthafield]

Being relatively new to this profession and insecure about what I was producing, I recently asked several faculty in my field from other institutions to review a draft of an article I wrote. Each one of them responded and offered comments. Perhaps most helpful were the comments of one senior prof who had written an article of which my piece was very critical. The process was one of my best experiences in the profession to date.

[Miriam Baer]

One additional suggestion for Anon Junior. For the folks who responded enthusiastically to your email, but then forgot to send you comments, you might want to re-send the Article with a cheerful follow-up email. Not saying you should become a stalker, but a simple, "Dear XXX, in case you had not had the opportunity to read my article, I thought I would send you this revision." You can also do that after it has been accepted for publication, as in, "Dear XXX, just thought you would like to know the paper has been accepted at YYYY law review. I have some time before I have to make changes, so I still would value your feedback."

Although I wouldn't do the above with a stranger, I absolutely have sent documents more than once to fellow colleagues and/or friends or mentors who promised to read the piece but got backed up with their own work. Usually, the second email elicits a big "sorry, I meant to get this back to you!" and the comments follow pretty quickly.

[Lev Elthafield]

I forgot to say that I did something similar to what Miriam is suggesting with more than one of the persons I asked to review my article. My follow-up was something along the lines of "I know you are busy and you should certainly not feel an obligation to comment on my article but I just wanted to let you know that I'm getting ready for submission and if you are going to comment I'll need your comments soon in order to take them into consideration." The results were consistent with what she reports.

[Orin Kerr]

Anon Junior, if your school is assigning you mentors and they're not reading your drafts, that's a problem with the school, not you. If there's a Dean for faculty development at your school, I would let him/her know about the difficulty you're having.

In response to Mary, I didn't say I was comfortable doing this; I'm not. But my sense is that it's a norm in the legal academy, so any discomfort is personal rather than a question of social norms.

Finally, anon junior, if your draft has anything to do with criminal law, criminal procedure, or Internet law, send me a copy and I'd be happy to read it and offer comments. okerr (at) gwu.edu.

[Orin Kerr]

@Miriam,

Hmm, right now I'm wondering if I ever got back to you with comments when you sent me your latest draft. Too late? ;-)