Newcomers welcome

As an eclectic academic working at the interface of arts, humanities and social sciences, I was appalled to read your feature on the difficulties faced by young scholars in getting published in journals ("Early careers spent grinding teeth, not cutting them", February 25).

I cannot believe that this is the prevailing picture. I have refereed many articles in a wide range of linguistics journals and have always been encouraged by the policy of double-blind peer-reviewing that certainly does not encourage the maintenance of any status quo, let alone the publication of "any old rubbish".

Moreover, as a former editor of an international interdisciplinary journal in stylistics, I can assure even PhD students that journals such as Language and Literature encourage them to submit articles. The journal even awards an annual prize to the best article published by a scholar "new to the field".

Katie Wales

Leeds University