Two possible reactions

[dr_whom]

I'm reading a dialectology paper in Journal X, a linguistics journal that does not specialize in sociolinguistics.

1. ...Hm, I should remember not to submit dialectology papers to Journal X. There are enough elementary factual errors here that it's clear that the journal editors don't know how to find reviewers who know anything about dialectology.

2. ...On second thought, maybe I should submit dialectology papers to Journal X. Clearly they have low standards in that regard and are more likely to accept them.

Comments

[qnmark.livejournal.com]

Ad 2, what is the journal's reputation among people who you'd like to hire you? In math, it's harder to game things this way, because the field is large enough that my application is reviewed by number theorists, silkspinner's by topologists, and so on. So if I send things to a journal that has high reputation as a number theory journal, even if it isn't so well-known in general, there will be a number theorist at the department who will point this out and explain to the rest what it means. But a while ago, when I asked about your job application process, you said there are only about 12 tenure-track linguistics positions a year in North America, so I imagine that overall departments are smaller and there may not be any dialectologist at a department you're applying to.

[dr_whom]

There are at most about 12 tenure-track positions in sociolinguistics a year in North America. Obviously there are more in linguistics at large.

Sociolinguistics job applications are probably chiefly evaluated by non-sociolinguists, yes. A department that has more than one sociolinguist already is unlikely to be hiring another.