Variaciones Borges is a journal of philosophy, semiotics and literature, published twice a year in Spanish, English and French by The University of Pittsburgh. Reaching beyond pure exegeses of Borges’s writings, the journal aims to explore the special style of thinking, writing and reading in which Borges excelled. Fantastic ontologies, synchronic genealogies, utopian grammars, fictional geographies, multiple universal histories, logical bestiaries, ornithological syllogisms, narrative ethics, imaginary mathematics, theological thrillers, nostalgic geometries and invented remembrances converge to justify the epithet “Borgesian” for a special area of academic research, in which philosophy appears as perplexity, thought as conjecture, and poetry as the deepest form of rationality. These creative displacements of relevance can be called “transverse epistemologies.” Selected articles from past issues of the journal are available in the section Borges Criticism.
What bothered me when they rejected my article was that they didn’t send any comments about why. The article was accepted by other journal later without changes.
I had exactly the same experience.
You were lucky, about a year after submitting the manuscript I was asked to rewrite it and to include references to the journal’s articles where applicable. No explanation was given as to why this was necessary. The same manuscript was later published by a well-known journal without any hassel. It seems to me that Variaciones is in the hands of totally inept (and prejudiced) editorial assistants. Very sad.
I have heard similar negative comments about this journal. No cohesive and objective rationale is given to colleagues for either acceptance or denial. After some investigation it is clearly evident that Variaciones Borges is a journal where the same few people publish the same recycled research. Notice that most of the authors that are published appear once and again. It seems you have to be an insider. This is not good practice for a journal. Look elsewhere.
This is truly disturbing but aparently true. I heard similarly doubtful comments about the review process of Variaciones Borges. It is also evident by looking at the volumes over the last few years that the same group of professors publish once and again.
These are one the most irresponsible people I have ever encountered. First they lost the manuscript, which was sent with the recommendation of someone who has published with them in the past; then it took them nearly two months for them to acknowledge that they had received it the second time; and finally “they” rejected it without any comments or explanations. I think what the name of the journals means is that a variety of inept people run it. And yes, as one person here said, I think it’s the same group of people publishing in the journal. The article as in the other cases, was ultimately accepted with comments and suggestions, and published by a reputable and responsible journal. I repeat what one of the commentators has said: Look elsewhere.
Variaciones Borges es un ejemplo a seguir en el mundo académico que, desgraciadamente, no parece haberse dado cuenta de ello. Por un lado por lo definido de su campo de estudio (frente a la generalidades de otras publicaciones donde les “vale todo”), y también por el profundo conocimiento de los trabajos relacionados con la materia, Borges, de su equipo directivo. No es casual que Variaciones sea un referente inexcusable en los estudios relacionados con el autor, y publicar en ella un motivo de orgullo.
Mi experiencia con Variaciones Borges ha sido magnífica. Remití un artículo, inmediatamente se hizo acuse de recibo y tras pocos meses se me remitieron los comentarios sobre el mismo. Debido a problemas personales no pude corregir el artículo hasta casi pasado un año desde la recepción de los comentarios y, apenas lo envié, me hicieron dos acotaciones muy puntuales, del mismo director de la revista, que procedí a subsanar y el artículo fue aprobado y publicado en un lapso mínimo de tiempo. Ojalá todas las publicaciones académicas tuvieran la misma seriedad en el manejo de los textos enviados y en el proceso de edición de los mismos.
Se trata de una revista espléndida, que se publica con una periodicidad encomiable y tiene un nivel irrebatible.