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Publishing during PhD candidature
- 1. HDR Seminar: Publishing in the Humanities and Social Sciences Prof. Andy Bennett (a.bennett@griffith.edu.au) Brady Robards (b.robards@griffith.edu.au) Chris Driver (christopher.driver@gmail.com)
- 2. Who are you? • Name • Program – Your ‘tribe’ or discipline • Do you have any publications ‘in the bag’? Any ‘in the pipes’? How confident are you with peer-reviewed academic publishing right now? On a scale of 1 to 5… 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 (Not confident at all) (Very confident)
- 3. Overview • Part I: Publishing from your thesis (Andy) • Part II: Publishing with your supervisor (Brady) • Part III: Publishing alone with guidance from your supervisor (Chris) • Part IV: Q&A and discussion
- 4. Part I: Publishing from your thesis • Why publish? – Griffith’s (newly revised) expectations. – From HDR student to ECR post-doc or ECR lecturer in the contemporary academic environment. “Higher degree research students are required to publish during candidature as a means of disseminating their findings and developing their writing skills… must be peer reviewed…”
- 5. Where to publish? • Tips on targeting journals with… – Alignment to academic discipline of researcher – Prestige within the specific field of the researcher – Good citation rate
- 6. How to publish from your thesis • Think strategically, e.g. articles shouldn’t just be a chunk from the thesis but need to be crafted into self-contained papers. • Consider your audience(s). – Who reads the journal you are targeting? – Is it a special issue? – Is it a book chapter in an edited collection?
- 7. Outcomes • Useful to think about generating 2 – 3 (or more) papers from thesis. • Should you turn your thesis into a book? What might that book look like compared to the thesis? – Targeting publishers • What is the state of the academic monograph today?
- 8. Part II: Publishing with your supervisor • Establishing the basis for collaboration: – Finding common ground. This can be a different process for a co- author relationship than it is for a supervisor-student partnership. – Trialling the paper at an earlier stage at a conference. – Drawing out the original material from student’s research that builds on and develops research by the supervisor.
- 9. Establishing parameters • Who writes what, how much, and how will this reflect in the name order of authors on the publication? • Deciding on the language and framing of that research, e.g. was it a research team throughout or has the supervisor only been directly involved in the analysis? • Agreeing on a timeframe for development and submission, and revising that timetable or future avenues of publication depending on the journal’s initial response.
- 10. Managing the process • Who will deal with the administrative back-and- forward with the journal? • Draw on the experience of the supervisor to deal with criticism. Learn (through your supervisor) how and when to stand your ground with reviewer feedback. • Develop an effective dialogue with journal editors where possible (this can be a networking exercise).
- 11. A slight detour… Technologies of distribution and tracking
- 12. Part III: Publishing alone with guidance from your supervisor • Taking ownership of and responsibility for your work • When and where to publish: supervisors’ advice and the politics of scholarly journal positioning • Negotiating your responsibilities and the obligations of supervisors in the article writing and revisions process • Understanding reviewers’ comments: playing the ‘game’ of peer-reviewed journal publishing
- 13. Taking ownership of and responsibility for your own work and career • Learning trajectories of writing to publish • Supervisors’ are resources, not HR specialists • Do your research: get across the predominant journals in your field and be able to discuss them • Helpful to think about publishing as narrative practice: what do I want to communicate here?
- 14. When and where to publish: supervisors’ advice and the politics of scholarly journal positioning • Thinking about publishing as a way of building a research profile and an academic identity • Getting a feeling for journals in the field: thinking about the fit of your work and the political outcomes • What do you want out of the PhD? What kinds of doors to you want to open with publishing? • Seeking and critically evaluating supervisors’ advice and ‘destination’ recommendations
- 15. Negotiating your responsibilities and the obligations of supervisors in the article writing and revisions process • Writing for publication is hard and represents a huge investment of time from you and your supervisor/s • Getting your responsibilities and expectations out in the open: surprises cause awkwardness • Things you should be doing to lessen the burden of supervision and get real feedback on article revisions • Supervisor; not God. Being critical about your own work and others’ opinion of your work
- 16. Understanding reviewers’ comments: playing the ‘game’ of peer-reviewed journal publishing • The reality of the peer-review process: being realistic about feedback • Coping with rejection and playing the ‘game’ of publishing • Timely revisions DO matter – there is no obligation on reviewers to accept revised papers and this can cause you problems
Editor's Notes
- Includes: Broad introduction and scope of the seminar (Andy)Introductions
- Andy to give an overview of the various components of the seminar.I put this last one in here because I wonder if we have time/if it will be valuable to give participants the opportunity to work individually on developing their own publication plan, based on where they are at with their research. This could be optional, then participants could run their plans by Andy, and Chris and I could help track down instructions for contributors to journals, etc. etc. We might not have time for this though, so we may want to stick to the original plan, but I thought it could be good to have a hands-on section where participants do some work around their own publication plan with the option of getting some feedback from Andy. OR we could just make this a broader Q&A session?
- ANDYWhy publish? An explanation of the need for academic publishing as part of the transition from HDR student to ECR post-doc or ECR lecturer in the contemporary academic environment.Where to publish: Tips on targeting journals withalignment to academic discipline of researcherprestige within the specific field of the researchergood citation rateHow to publish from your thesis:Think strategically, e.g. articles shouldn’t just be a chunk from the thesis but need to be crafted into self-contained papers. Need to bear in mind that, whereas a thesis is written for an examination, articles and book chapters derived from thesis material need to be refined in such a way that they address a broad academic audience need to begin planning early so that papers appear in print either before or around time that the thesis is submitted for examination. Useful to think about generating 2 – 3 papers from thesis, but may also need to plan this carefully as thesis may also become basis for a book (and too much overlap between chapters / journal articles and a book is not advisable).
- BRADYEstablishing the basis for collaboration:Finding common ground, which can be a different process for a co-author relationship than it is for supervisor-student relationshipTrialling the paper at an earlier stage at a conferenceDrawing out the original material from student’s research that builds on and develops research by the supervisorEstablishing parameters of the writing partnership:Who writes what, how much, and how will this reflect in the name order of authors on the publication?Deciding on the language and framing of that research, e.g. was it a research team throughout or has the supervisor only been directly involved in the analysis?Agreeing on a timeframe for development and submission, and revising that timetable or future avenues of publication depending on the journal’s initial response.Managing the writing and submission process and responding to reviewers comments. Who will deal with the administrative back-and-forward with the journal?Drawing on the experience of the supervisor to deal with criticism, and with learning how (and when) to stand your ground with reviewer feedback.Developing an effective dialogue with journal editors where possible.
- Important to understand that the PhD is your responsibility – not your supervisors’. The changing function of the Humanities or Social Sciences PhD as a training program for future researchers – needs to be viewed as a way of positioning yourself to ‘hit the ground running’ in a particular career. HAVE A PLAN. The PhD can be seen as a trajectory, a kind of learning process. We should be working towards some sense of autonomy in our research and scholarship.Important to understand where the role of supervisors begins and ends. The supervision duties are not graded on the post-doctoral career success of their students. They are resources for you to draw on when making decisions about your own research and career trajectory. One of the most helpful things I could think of was just to say that there is an enormous amount of learning to be done by you before approaching the world of journal publishing. Take the time to really research options that you have in terms of the journals that are out there. ERA RANKINGS??? IMPACT FACTORS???Even if you ultimately rely on the guidance of your supervisor, it will be helpful to be able to debate those decisions and to understand the reasons for this recommendations –as well as the possible implications for your identity as a researcher.Work towards developing a nuanced understanding of what these journals have in common and how they are different. As new researchers in your field, your choice of destination for your publications not only determines the scope of your audience but communicates your scholarly priorities, your work ethics and your confidence in your research.
- Thinking about the idea of identity is a good analogy here. In your everyday life, people interact with you and read meaning into your actions, the things you say, the clothes you wear. In your academic careers, your peers will do the same based on your kind of virtual presence on the pages of particular publications. Don’t be the guy people avoid because you run double denim, have bad tattoos and a worse moustache. So what do you want is it that you want to stand for as a researcher? Do you want to be the academic who publishes exclusively in A or A* ranked journals? Do you want to be the person who publishes in the really traditional ‘Association’ journals with ridiculously broad readerships? Do you want to be the academic who backs open-access journals or open review journals?A lot of this will have to do with your future plans. This is probably a good time to mention that your supervisors have made these transitions – they have made their bed and are happy or not to sleep in it.
- This probably goes without saying, but do not underestimate the amount of time it takes to produce something worthy of publication in a quality journal. Another one that may be obvious or not: make sure you talk about plans for publications at the start of the supervision relationship. This is getting more important now that publishing from the thesis is not optional. And while your at it, talk about your expectations from each other – what you expect and what are absolute no-nos. Some helpful tips:Important to reiterate here that it’s YOUR WORK.
- The good news is that publishing is totally do-able. You don’t have to be a genius to get published. But you do have to be resilient. The reality is that, by a large majority, most manuscripts come back for at least minor revisions. There are a number of reasons for this and they do not all have to do with the fact that your paper sucks. Another thing to consider when dealing with rejections or requests for revisions is that, while you should see most criticisms as opportunities to improve your work, you are not the only one trying to forge an identity or an agenda in the pages of journal publications. Finally, a very practical tip that I have had personal problems with. DO YOUR REVISIONS and get them back to the journal in good time.