Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · What to do about a stalled book project Are you *not* writing a book? Maybe it’s your “thesis book”. Maybe it’s something else. You might have a contract for it. You might not have started it, but think you should have by now. You might have a lot of […]
Read More »Communicating scholarly knowledge
Publishing is an important part of your work as a scholar. Posts in this category address all times of publishing, understood as making your knowledge public: more or less formal methods, publishing for scholarly audiences, publishing for wider audiences.
For an introduction to how I approach the topic start with Communication vs Validation: Why are you publishing.
Decision making: peer review
This post was originally written in February 2021 as a follow up to Planning Your Winter Semester and was shared in the Academic Writing Studio. It has been edited and divided into a series of shorter posts for ease of reading. The general principles—habits, routines, and default responses—are explained in the first post in the […]
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Prioritising non-academic audiences during the pandemic
One of the issues that has come up in both Office Hours (a group coaching session for members of the Academic Writing Studio that I’m holding weekly at the moment) and in the Establishing a Writing Practice class is: the relationship between motivation to write and finding the writing you need to do meaningful. I’ve […]
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Thoughts on academic freedom, scholarly publishing, and mundane practices
This post is something I initially wrote for my newsletter. I had come across something that I wanted to write about even though I didn’t have a neat conclusion or lesson. I value freedom and autonomy. I know freedom and autonomy are important factors for many people who choose an academic career. I also value […]
Read More »Revision following peer review is a normal part of the scholarly writing process
When I talked to Katherine Firth, one of the things that came up was the frustration that comes from the writing process taking longer than expected. (The link goes right to the bit of the video where we talk about this.) This happens at all stages of the process because all academic writing projects are long […]
Read More »Peer review supports academic writing!
The 4th book in my Short Guides series, Peer Review (A Short Guide), was published on 15 November 2019. I occasionally offer a class, Dealing With Reviewer Comments, based on the principles elaborated in this book. The main thing I want this Short Guide to do is transform your view of peer review. Too often […]
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Scholarly writing as a collective project to advance knowledge
It saddens and frustrates me that so many scholars lose sight of how meaningful their academic work is (or was) for them in the face of external pressures. Too often the collective process of advancing knowledge has been obscured by competitive pressures that lead to bullying and a distraction from the work itself to focus […]
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What does citation mean? Values and practices in scholarly work
Helen Kara has written a though provoking piece about citation and scholarly friends: To Cite or Not to Cite your Friends. One of her scholarly interests is ethics, so it’s not surprising that she would think about this in relation to the ethics of citation. Is citing your friends cronyism? Is it “gaming the system”? What […]
Read More »Excerpt from Peer Review (A Short Guide) on emotional labour
I have sent the full revised draft off to my editor and anticipate publishing this next volume in the Short Guides series in autumn 2019. [UPDATE: Peer Review (A Short Guide) was published on 15 November 2019 and can be ordered wherever you buy books.] The one sentence summary that has been guiding my revisions […]
Read More »Sneaky ways your gremlins try to get you not to actually publish
I am tempted to put “Part 1” at the end of the title because I’m sure there are more, but since I have no intention of writing any more of this series at the moment, I’ll leave it. If you report your gremlin’s sneaky tricks in the comments or privately, I will add to the […]
Read More »The value of voluntary peer review labour
What follows is a draft of one section of my next Short Guide, 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 […]
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The relationship between writing for scholarly audiences & for wider audiences
My approach to academic publishing is focused on its importance for communicating what you have learned from your research with others. I also argue that writing (and publishing) for scholarly audiences is important and is often quite different than what you would write for practitioners, activists, policymakers, or other wider audiences (see What is the point […]
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