[Max Goodman]

Are there good peer-reviewed journals that would entertain submissions on prosody from an author with no scholarly credentials?

Where would an author research the idea for such a submission, to determine whether it were, in fact, original?

[Maryann Corbett]

For the research, I would start with a talk with a reference librarian at the largest public library you can conveniently visit--or an academic library if you have access to one. The library staff will know more than we on the board know about what periodical indexes cover what journals, and which ones are free for online users.

Once you know what indexes to consult, you can start looking at article titles to make sure you haven't been scooped.

I just used Google Books and searched the words "English" and "prosody" and "meter" together. The results include an awful lot of very old books, along with some recent publications, but not a lot of periodical literature.

Caveat: This answer is from one who's been away from this sort of research for quite some time. It would be great to get an answer from someone who still has both feet in the researching muck! This is a topic that's of interest to me also.

[RCL]

Like Maryann, I was one mucked to the max in academic scholarship. In my field, American Literature, there were only a few scholars unaffiliated with a U. Maybe narrowing it down to an author, genre, or period will help. It's going to be a tough sell if you're not affiliated.

You might send out a round of query letters to major journals--PMLA, American Literature, New England Quarterly, Modern Philology, English Language Notes, and others. The Reviews are more for the "man of letters," undocumented essay, such as Sewanee Review, Southern Review, Georgia Review, et al.


Good luck,

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Ralph

[This message has been edited by RCL (edited April 10, 2007).]

[Max Goodman]

Thanks to you both for your advice. If I'm understanding correctly, the reviews are the places for me to start, if I can determine the idea is worth pursuing (or can't determine that it isn't).