Publishing from Your PhD

Negotiating a Crowded Jungle

Nicola F. Johnson

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781138470729
• eBook ISBN: 9781351907545
• Topic: Desarrollo personal
• Subtopic: Negocios en general

There is consistent pressure on all academics to publish, publish, publish. But not unless they have been awarded their PhD - considered by most to be the starting step of an academic career. So while the pressure is on to obtain the title, and then obtain a permanent position, and then publish journal articles, there is little support available to researchers in the nascent stage of their careers. Publishing from Your PhD precisely focuses on providing early career researchers with emotional and collegial support that is often not available in academe. It seeks to dispel nepotistic notions of superiority that places Professors and such on a pedestal. It specifically clarifies the difficulty in having written the PhD thesis and then rewriting it to suit the genre of journal articles. It does not deal with the 'how' of academic writing in general. This book endeavours to shed light on the path one must take to navigate the jungles of academia. This is an untrodden path which is unique to every researcher - especially those who employ abstract or critical theories in their research - and each journey through the jungle is different. However, because there is little literature about this embryonic journey, this book illuminates the processes and difficulties of publishing in journals and culling one's finely honed thesis into small chunks - a difficult task to which few admit.

1 Supplies are Needed,
Packing the Backpack:
What Others have Written

Arming the Pack for the Destination Ahead

This chapter summarises the previously written ‘help’ books and explains what others have written about negotiating the beginning scholar’s pathway. Though these books are valuable, they do not explain the frustration and real-life stories, and the ‘how-to’ of publishing from your PhD. There is a lot of literature of ‘how’ to put a thesis together, which nicely fit alongside your advisor’s or supervisor’s role in helping you to construct your thesis.

In reviewing the literature for this book, I found a number of helpful publications that discuss the ‘how’ of writing, so it is important that this text does not replicate these previously published works, nor does it try to. The following books proved to be very helpful to me, yet they are dissimilar to this book in that this monograph a) focuses on my particular experiences as an early career researcher, or beginner academic, b) provides a contemporary perspective on the plights of publishing, and c) shares the trajectories of established academics. In 2010, the following books are dated and perhaps have not focused on the competitive nature and continuing struggle of publishing, whilst some also exclude the present-day nature of electronic publishing. However, you may find these books in your university library, and each can be helpful, especially as they have been written by experienced academics.

Publishing in Refereed Academic Journals: A Pocket Guide (Kenway, Gough and Hughes 1998, Deakin Centre for Education and Change). This helpful book is very short and small in size (76 pages, 15 cm x 12 cm). Much of the instructive book is written in bullet points for a quick read. It does not discuss issues in depth, and is not focused on publishing from your PhD from the perspective of an early career researcher. It focuses on how to write articles for specific journals, which is of interest to any academic, but the authors admit it is not comprehensive.

How to Survive Peer Review (Wager, Godlee and Jefferson 2002, BMJ Books). This useful book is also very short (62 pages), but is mainly written from a medical science perspective for healthcare professionals. It defines peer review and discusses how to be a reviewer, both formally and informally, but it only lightly covers the topic of dealing with rejection (which is what its title insinuates). Publishing from Your PhD dedicates a whole chapter (Chapter 7) to the traumatic experience of dealing with rejection.

Writing for Academic Success: A Postgraduate Guide (Craswell 2005, Sage). While this text focuses on how to write a thesis, its ninth and final chapter discusses ‘Journal Article and Book Publication’ (16 pages). While this chapter offers specific and useful advice, it does not address the issues of how to craft 4,000–9,000-word articles from a thesis consisting of approximately 90,000+ words. It does, however, discuss the pros and cons of publishing while still in student candidature.

All of these preceding books give dot point directions to researchers and give brief overviews about academic writing. A comprehensive series of books has been written by Rebecca Boden, Jane Kenway and Debbie Epstein entitled the ‘Academic’s Support Kit’.¹ The six-volume ‘kit’ covers, in order, Building your Academic Career; Getting Started on Research; Writing for Publication; Teaching and Supervision; Winning and Managing Research Funding; and Building Networks. Volume 3 Writing for Publication devotes one chapter (24 pages) to ‘Publishing Articles in Academic Journals’. These books are delightfully delivered with humour and practical points, and share anonymous anecdotes about various intricacies of academia.

A 2010 publication by Aitchison, Kamler and Lee (Routledge) also focuses on publishing from your doctorate. Entitled, Publishing Pedagogies for the Doctorate and Beyond, it details some difficulties about publishing while being a student and also highlights how to negotiate conflicting reviews while working on a resubmission. It also argues the need for doctoral students to be supported in their efforts to publish, while also detailing how doctoral students might be mentored, and encouraged to network within multidisciplinary research writing groups. The edited volume is distinct from this work as it focuses on ‘socially situated theories of pedagogical practice’ (2010: 6). It offers many ideas concerning how to go about publishing from your PhD, and in that sense, is similar to this book, as it seeks to develop knowledge, skill and confidence in order to publish successfully in scholarly avenues. Aitchison et al.’s edited collection is a complementary text to this one as its focus is on the infrastructure evident in universities and how the scholarly publication of doctoral research might be best ‘facilitated, managed or taught’ (2010: 2).

Previous Navigation

Many of the ‘how-to’ books cover a range of writing, not just for journals, but include information on the practicalities of writing books, research grants, conference papers and speeches. Other publications detail how to work with publishers, and negotiate contracts (Cantor 1993, Greenwood Press; Luey 2002, Cambridge University Press), which provide valuable information. In terms of the ‘how’ to go about writing, I recommend Abby Day’s How to Get Research Published in Journals (1996, Gower) or her later edition (2008, Gower), as well as Black et al.’s (1998, Kogan Page) 500 Tips for Getting Published: A Guide for Educators, Researchers and Professionals. These books provide fundamental advice about how to construct text and recommend good writing habits from which academic authors can benefit. I wish I had read those two books before I started submitting sole-authored articles for publication (based on my PhD).

Cantor’s A Guide to Academic Writing (1993, Greenwood Press) is a matter-of-fact book about academic writing, and makes a valuable contribution of things to keep in mind when assessing the final version of your article that you wish to submit for review. ‘Be original and present only new information and fresh insights’ (Cantor...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• For David
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• 1a Introduction: Navigating a Jungle – No Worn Paths
• 1 Supplies are Needed, Packing the Backpack: What Others have Written
• 2 Hacking a Path Through Unknown Territory
• 3 Navigating New Terrain: The Demise of the Book?
• 4 Flies, Gnats and Wasps: Negotiating the Gatekeepers
• 5 The Night is Black: No Black or White in Academia
• 6 Stamina is Needed for Survival: Choosing the Right Journal
• 7 Fighting the Heat, Hunger and Thirst: Dealing with Rejection
• 8 Thorny Bushes and Muddy Swamps: Things That Slow you Down
• 9 The Final Destination Has Moved, Hack Another Path: The Process of Culling and Prioritising
• 9a Prologue: Introducing the Interviews with the Academics
• 10 Professor Jan Herrington
• 11 Professor Paul Chandler
• 12 Professor Lori Lockyer
• 13 Professor Jan Wright
• 14 Professor Wilma Vialle
• 15 Professor Sara Dolnicar
• 15a Conclusion: Negotiating the Crowded Jungle – Acknowledge Successful Navigation
• Index