Michael Connor

Comments on hoaxing Quadrant

Jeff  Sparrow, editor of Overland (patron Barry Jones AO):

In normal circumstances, you’d feel a certain sympathy for an editor thus taken in. Most small journals (like, say, Overland) can’t afford fact checkers, and the refereeing process depends on academics freely giving of their time to study a manuscript. It’s all too easy to publish bogus material. But this is Keith Windschuttle …

Posting at Crikey by “kayt davies”:

I am stunned Margaret [Simons] that, as a freelance journo, you are not appalled by this. As a former magazine editor and a freelance myself it makes me feel sick. Quadrant is NOT a peer reviewed journal and it doesn’t pretend to be one. For “Sharon [Gould]” to criticise Windschuttle of not getting the article peer reviewed is just dumb. It is not something that editors of non peer reviewed articles in Australia do. (Yes, as you know, I have just completed the biggest study ever done on the work of Australian magazine editors, and NO it is not part of the job description!). This hoax is bad news for all magazine freelances because it will make all editors more suspicious of new writers. Sure, Crikey is happy to run your stuff because they know you but how is anyone new going to get a start in an industry that will justifiably become more paranoid. My sympathy is with the editor on this issue. It’s a thankless task and vindictive fabricators are thankfully rare enough that I’m not surprised it took him unawares.

Update: The Quadrant hoaxer has been named as Katherine Wilson, a former editor of Overland (patron Barry Jones AO). 

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