Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Peer review supports academic writing This post is an excerpt from the 4th book in my Short Guides series, Peer Review (A Short Guide), was published on 15 November 2019. I also offer a class called Dealing With Reviewer Comments which is based on the principles elaborated in this book. […]
Read More »Academic Context
How things work in academic institutions, academic disciplines, and other spaces where you find yourself. The unwritten rules, assumptions, and ways of being that make the difference in everyday academic life.
This category has been somewhat neglected. Older posts in this category will be edited and possibly recategorized beginning in July 2015.
The value of voluntary peer review labour
What follows is a excerpt from my most recent Short Guide to Peer Review. I approach peer review as primarily editorial labour, with the goal of improving scholarship. I question the use of “gate keeping” as a metaphor for the role of peer reviewers in making recommendations to editors regarding publishing decisions, while recognising that […]
Read More »Accountability vs Community
I’ve been reading Rowena Murray‘s Writing in Social Spaces, and it has helped me articulate something that underpins a lot of my work. Community is important to your ability to do this work. This got long, if what you really want are suggestions for creating writing community, jump here. When I talk about A Meeting […]
Read More »Thoughts on “Untangling Academic Publishing”
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Thoughts on “Untangling Academic Publishing” I have written before about communication and validation in your publishing decisions, and encouraged you to prioritize communication in your decision making process. In this post, I want to extend that argument using a recently published scholarly report as a jumping off point. (you […]
Read More »Do you need to be excellent?
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Do you need to be excellent? I have written before about “doing your best” being a distraction and instead encouraged you to focus on doing good work. In this post, I want to extend that argument using a recently published scholarly article as a jumping off point. (You can […]
Read More »What is “administration” anyway?
I find the use of “administration” and “administrators” in academic circles increasingly problematic. In particular, there is a lack of precision in the use of the term. The term “administration” seems to be applied to everything from clerical work to running the institution. It has become a catch-all category for any work done in the […]
Read More »Maternity leave & your publication record
Note: The information in this post is relevant to those evaluating the scholarship of others (for hiring, promotion, funding, etc) as well as to those having their scholarship evaluated. It also applies to other kinds of leave in which you would not reasonably be expected to keep publishing including longer sick leaves, disability leave, and […]
Read More »What it means to make a contribution to knowledge
The primary purpose of academic publishing is to communicate with other scholars. This form of communication is rather formal. The bar for acceptance into the conversation is high. This conversation is asynchronous and takes place over very long time periods. What happens once you’ve published your article? By publishing your article in a scholarly journal […]
Read More »Applying for promotion: Research Trajectory
While helping a client with her application for promotion, I was reminded of a conversation I had with a senior colleague when I applied for a promotion many years ago. The promotion committee will be looking for a trajectory in your research. I checked the guidelines for promotion from my client’s institution. Sure enough I […]
Read More »Being part of a collective is part of your work
Just like eating, sleeping, and exercise, the work required to build and maintain relationships and to work collectively with colleagues has to be a priority. Those relationships are the foundation that makes a lot of other things possible. You cannot leave it to whatever time remains. Nor is it helpful to enter every collective situation […]
Read More »What you can change
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · What you can change God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference. (The Serenity Prayer —Reinhold Niebuhr) Whether you believe in that god or not, the sentiment of this prayer is just […]
Read More »Expectations
As an academic you are expected to do a lot of things, expectations that appear increasingly unreasonable. You may need to do more work than you think is reasonable but you do not need to collude in the erasure of the political agency of others. What happens if you stop using the passive voice when talking about those expectations?
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