Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · The frustrations of peer review: Why is it taking so long? This is part of a short series addressing the frustration with how long peer review takes. Other posts in this series include How you, as a peer reviewer, can contribute to a better process and The Role of Journal […]
Read More »Publishing
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 […]
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From the archive: It’s not how much you publish
In this season of setting goals it is worth thinking about how you frame those goals. At the end of a workshop on publishing plans, clarifying objectives, figuring out when to apply for a SSHRC grant, and related issues, one participant made an interesting comment. Thanking me for the workshop she contrasted my approach to the […]
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Writing for the people who will like your work
It strikes me that many academics spend a lot of time and energy worrying about the people who will hate their work. Even before you’ve written the article, you are imagining someone criticizing it, probably in a particularly mean and hurtful way. No wonder you have trouble writing. Write for the people who are eager […]
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Research produces more questions than answers
The popular view of research is that it produces answers. This is not untrue. If you need answers, research is going to help you find them. The problem is that research also produces questions. In fact, it produces more questions than answers, which can have a big impact on your ability to publish and on your […]
Read More »Post-PhD precarity
We know that to get an academic position you need to publish from your dissertation. It would be helpful to at least have a good idea of where your research program is going to go next. If you can get started on that next project, even better. Competition is stiff. Even institutions that don’t have […]
Read More »Interesting post on impact of research
This post on measuring impact (within and beyond academia) has some interesting elements. Impact zones and the role of publishers: changing the way academic research makes wider impact | Impact of Social Sciences. I find the middle section, with the green chart, particularly interesting as a way of imagining the potential impact of a piece […]
Read More »In lieu of my own post on writing
Inger Mewburn at The Thesis Whisperer wrote a brilliant post recently on getting writing finished. The ‘Out The Door’ rant « The Thesis Whisperer In his superb book “Writing for social scientists” (which should be renamed “Writing for everyone”), Howard Becker talks about the importance of being the kind of writer who can get stuff […]
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How scholarship is evaluated
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · How scholarship is evaluated The quality and impact/significance of your research is usually evaluated based on where you publish. The advent of new outlets for your scholarly work has raised some interesting issues about how this is done. A blog exchange about Melville scholarship (read the comments, and also […]
Read More »How I help with writing
A hadn’t been publishing. He wrote regularly despite a full teaching load. But he wasn’t getting things finished. And he wasn’t submitting them. Writing was an intellectually satisfying process for A. In thinking about why he didn’t finish he realized that he wasn’t motivated by the product — an article or a book — but […]
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You can take your time
Your dissertation is not an end. It is a beginning.
Getting a tenure track job (or equivalent academic appointment) is not an end. It is a beginning.
And even if your ultimate goal is “Be a full-professor, with an international reputation in my field.” (and it’s okay if that isn’t your goal), you aren’t going to get there in 3-5 years.
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What is your best contribution?
Instead of asking yourself: what you are going to do with all this education you have … Instead of wondering: what you have to do to get someone to hire you … Instead of focusing on all the external expectations, constraints, etc … Why not ask yourself this question? What is my best contribution? How […]
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