Ready—Set—Publish!

1. Ready—Set—Publish! Maureen Pettitt, Ph.D. Skagit Valley College PNAIRP 2007 Victoria, BC

2. The Topics • Identifying the ‘right’ topic for your article • Finding an appropriate outlet for your article • Writing and editing • Understanding the submission and refereeing processes • Handling rejections and requests for revisions

3. The outcomes of any serious research can only be to make two questions grow where only one grew before. ~Thorstein Veblen ??

4. Generating Potential Topics:Passion or Practical?

5. Generating Potential Topics • What have you been researching lately? • What are you passionate about? • Are they the same—or not? Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart. ~William Wordsworth

6. The Research Journal Record your ideas!!!!

7. Potential Publication Outlets • What potential audiences might be interested in your research? • Do you have a preference for print journals? E-journals? • How much time do you want to spend on writing and revising the article? Publication is the auction of the Mind of Man.~ Emily Dickinson

8. Potential Publication Outlets • Resources for finding journals • http://dmoz.org/Reference/Education/Journals/ • http://journalseek.net • Look at contents/abstracts from several journals that seem appropriate for your topic, then: • Carefully review the submission guidelines • See if there is an ‘accept’ rate and/or time from ‘accept’ to publication

9. Get Writing!!(for some, it’s a bloody process) There’s nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein. ~ Walter Wellesley “Red” Smith Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead. ~ Gene Fowler

10. Collaborate or Fly Solo?

11. Research Articles • Conceptual framework • Context • The research question(s) • Literature review • Methodology • Empirical findings • Implications for practice or policy

12. Other Options • Research Briefs (i.e., Journal of Applied Research in the Community College) Editorial pieces (i.e., Liberal Education) • Monographs or Abstracts (i.e., the League for Innovation in the Community College’s Leadership Abstracts and Learning Abstracts) • Book Reviews

13. Writing Relationships • Your best friend is the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th Ed) • There are several web-based resources available: • http://apastyle.apa.org/ • http://campusgw.library.cornell.edu/newhelp/res_strategy/citing/apa.html • http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/

14. Writing Relationships • Your second best friend is the colleague, mate, or pal who is willing to review and make comments on your drafts

15. Writing Relationships • Your third best friends are web-based search engines, especially Google Scholar, and on-line library databases like EBSCOHost and ProQuest – get journal alerts from the latter two for the journals of interest to you!

16. Your article should…. • Say something new, important, different or interesting • Indicate an awareness of recent literature or debates on the topic • Address the journal’s readers/audience • Be well written…

17. Writing Tips EDIT, EDIT, EDIT No author dislikes to be edited as much as he dislikes not to be published.~ Russel Lynes

18. You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what’s burning inside you. And we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.~ Arthur Polotnik

19. The Submission Process • Review articles in recent issues of the journals in which you have an interest • Still not sure your topic/theme is suitable for the journal? Ask an editor… • Read the submission guidelines thoroughly and follow them! • Submit one article to one journal at a time • If your article is rejected, you are free to submit it to another journal

20. The Refereeing Process • Refereeing is a long process; reviewers are generally unpaid volunteers • The decisions are usually: accept, accept with minor revisions, revise and resubmit, or reject • The ‘accept’ decision is not common; expect to do revisions • Don’t be put off by harsh comments • Contradictory referee comments? Ask the editor for advice.

21. Revision Remember, “Yes, but…” means “Yes” with a detour Think of the revision process as a learning opportunity (don’t gag!) Address the comments; note what you’ve done (or not done) and why Easy reading is damn hard writing. ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne

22. Rejection I am returning this otherwise good typing paper to you because someone has printed gibberish all over it and put your name at the top.~ Unnamed English Professor Ohio University

23. Rejection • “No” might well mean “Not today.” • In some ways, you are selling a product… so, be flexible. Have more than one solution for the problem: Do you have another approach? A different spin with more fire?

24. Final Thoughts Don’t get discouraged… Every writer I know has trouble writing. ~ Joseph Heller I love being a writer. What I can’t stand is the paperwork.~ Peter De Vries

25. Thanks for your attention!!!Questions?

26. A thinker sees his own actions as experiments and questions—as attempts to find out something. Success and failure are for him answers above all. ~Friedrich Nietzsche