The Center for Language and Literacy Education (CLLE) recently held the second session of the Meet the Editors series at the Faculty of Education, University of Macau, as part of a series jointly organized by CLLE and the Center for Educational Psychology and Early Childhood Education (CEPECE). This session was led by Prof. Shulin Yu, Assistant Dean (Student Affairs), Director of CLLE, and Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Macau. He currently serves as Associate Editor of three international journals: Journal of Second Language Writing, Assessing Writing, and The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher. Under the theme “Publishing qualitative research in international journals: How to avoid a desk reject?”, the session aimed to help students better understand the common reasons qualitative manuscripts are rejected at the editorial screening stage, as well as the key qualities that make a submission more editor-ready.
The session was built around an interactive format. Prof. Yu invited participants to imagine themselves as journal editors and examine twelve concrete cases, discussing whether each manuscript should be sent out for peer review and what factors might influence that decision. Through these example-based discussions, he highlighted several recurring concerns in qualitative submissions, including journal fit, clarity of contribution, methodological rigor, language quality, formatting, and the overall framing of the manuscript. Participants also shared their own writing and submission experiences and raised questions about how to position qualitative research more effectively and avoid common pitfalls before review.
The session created a lively and supportive space for open dialogue between an editor and students. By working through real editorial cases alongside participants’ own questions and experiences, the session made editorial expectations more concrete and offered practical guidance for students preparing qualitative manuscripts for international journals.