Appreciation post for the female journal editor who did me a solid
I’m a new mom on the tenure track. I got a major R&R decision while out on maternity leave, and let’s just say I NEED this paper to land.
But it’s hefty revisions on a solo paper - no coauthors to help me. Baby’s waking me 3x a night. My very limited brainpower goes to keeping track of daycare items and the administrative burden of returning to teaching.
I write the editor that I just returned from mat leave and ask humbly for an extension. She says no problem and to just ask if I need more time.
Despite my best efforts, I need more time. I go back and ask for an extra month. She agrees.
I work during naps and late into the night after baby goes to bed in order to try and make this new deadline, a pit in my stomach as it becomes increasingly clear that I won’t be able to make it with anything close to my best work on this revision.
I log into the submission portal to submit what I could slop together, only to find that, without mentioning it, this angel of an editor gave me two extra weeks beyond what I’d requested. I almost burst into tears.
Women helping women is how we all make it in this hostile world. Thank you, editor. I hope to pay it forward one day.