Linguistic Comments on Iranian Medical Researchers' Manuscripts: Exploring the Reasons for Linguistic Errors

The articles submitted to ISI-Indexed journals receive various comments from peer reviewers. This study analyzes the text histories as well as peer reviewers' comments on 20 articles written by Iranian medical researchers published in ISI-indexed journals. Using Mungra and Webber's (2010) categorization of linguistic comments, this study aimed to investigate the amount and types of linguistic comments made by peer reviewers on these manuscripts. There was also an attempt to understand the reasons behind their linguistic problems through semi-structured interviews. The results revealed that fewer linguistic comments as compared to content comments are made on these manuscripts. Moreover, Mungra and Webber's (2010) categorization of linguistic comments was not found to cover all linguistic comments in our corpus and an additional category was used to make better categorization of linguistic issues. Personal attempts to improve the knowledge of English, attendance in various English classes, participation in academic research networks and, above all, extended use of English in researchers' university curricula are among the basic reasons for the researchers to develop their knowledge of English. Implications for holding English for Academic Purposes courses for medical researchers are also discussed.