Episode #11: Academic Writing

So You Want to Publish? 

In this episode Laura & Jeff talk about studying and research higher education, that is, examining practitioners, professionals, and how we work in post-secondary. Beyond examining the learners, we both are interested in understanding more about the staff functions and ways we support professional staff, administration, scholar-practitioners, and academics. Here are a few areas we are interested in studying for student services, student affairs, and professional staff:

• Professional competencies for higher education staff 
• Academic advising and/or student support (can include student affairs, students services, peer tutors, or student advice -- depending where you live).
• Talent development
• Professional learning and training facilitation
• Mentoring of peers in the profession
• Networked experiences (research study in-progress) to explore self & communities online and the impacts/influence for practice in higher ed
• Podcasting for P.D.

Where are the outlets YOU publish in about those of us who work in higher ed? I am thankful for peers and colleagues who curate lists for publication outlets, such as Patrick Lowenthal’s Ed Tech Journal List updated in 2016 here: http://www.edtechjournals.org/, BGSU's Higher Ed curated libguide for peer-review journals, magazines & trade pubs, and the NASPA Faculty Council’s Higher Ed & Student Affairs Publication Education Outlets

Developmental Publishing Lessons Learned

If you can’t find one, then perhaps you might start you own scholarly publication outlet, such as starting a journal? Jeff has obtained an ISSN Number Application http://loc.gov/issn/form/ for the TACUSPA organization to offer more than just descriptive pieces. Goal: provide evidence-based practices. This is a developmental journal for early career scholars and/or a niche space for specific areas of applied research. E.g. here’s the journal Laura helped to found in her graduate work: Learning and Performance Quarterly Here are a few things we have learned along the way in our #AcWri early career experiences:

Create products for publication. Always. We need to have graduate students, master's and doctoral-level to think about crafting their academic writing for a publication and not just a paper or assignment. Consider WHERE and HOW you would use each writing piece for publications.

Get experience with peer-review: Practice of reviewing for peer-review and/or editing to be part of the process to learn more about the PROCESS. Reviewing manuscripts, copy-editing, and evening managing a journal takes TIME -- but it does help you learn what to expect for the stages of submitting an article.

Share the writing, peer-review, and publishing process: The process of comments from editors, rejections from journals, and response to publications needs to be talked about among scholars & practitioners. Let’s normalize the process and share the experience.

Search for your manuscript FIT! Scopus is the mega database of abstracts and citations of peer-reviewed literature: scientific journals, books and conference proceedings. Search and download “Scopus List” a spreadsheet for specific details for each journal.

Avoid desk rejects: This is when an editor rejects your manuscript and (hopefully) offers you feedback on scope and/or fit for your paper within a few days to week of submission. This avoids your manuscript sitting through the lengthy peer-review process for no reason.

Not all papers need to be in prestigious journals: Consider submitting to B-level journals and having a few targets for your paper that might fit if it is rejected -- so you can take feedback to update and/or turn around to submit somewhere else

Love Your Librarian: Ask your librarians for support with your research on topics, to journal outlets, databases to search for empirical literature,  and/or where/how to archive your own publications (or say set up your own journal).

Support and consider how you involve practitioners in scholarship. Here are a few thoughts I shared about working with scholar-practitioners. Mentioned on @BreakdRink episode no. 8 and blogged by Laura.

@BreakDrink Listens:

Podcast: Brewster Kahle on Universal Access to Knowledge via EDUCAUSE

Higher Ed Podcasts to Check out via Player FM h/t @JaimieLHoffman

@BreakDrink Reads:

A Guide to Becoming a Scholarly Practitioner in Student Affairs by Lisa J. Hatfield & Vicki L. Wise

Catch the “BreakDrink” pod wherever you find, grab, and stream your podcasts. 

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