Academic Publishing II: Of Proposals and Editors

by Moriya Vanderhoef

Last week’s lecture sponsored by the Center for 21st Century Studies was highly informative and had many moments of amusement pop in at unexpected, but very welcomed moments. The three lecturers, John C. Blum, Michelle Caswell, and Merry Wiesner-Hanks, were all very personable and approachable. This had to be my favorite lecture of the semester! As an aspiring academic, I thought this lecture doled out very important information on the steps someone has to go through to get an article published in a journal or a book published and made available to the public. There were golden nuggets of advice, such as, “It has to leave your computer for your work to ever be published and finally declared finished,” which seems simple, but that is the brilliance. How many students, whether an undergraduate, master’s or PhD, remember that the most important step is putting your work out there to face public opinion and stimulate discussion? I know I often forget this fact and a little nugget like this is just what I needed to remind me of it.

While I could go on and on about what a fabulous lecture the Center offered this last Friday, I thought I’d offer a few highlights of some of the advice doled out which I thought everyone would enjoy and appreciate.

For Articles:

-Volunteer at journals by offering to review books or articles. I had no idea that this was an option and when they mentioned that you often get to keep the books you reviewed I wanted to shout,”Sign me up!”

-1/3(!) of all articles submitted to journals do not have a thesis. If you want your work to stand out, put a clear, concise, well-explained thesis in your article. Frankly, this statistic surprised me. Its hard to imagine how one would write anything which is coherent and readable without a thesis.

-When you are turned down (and everyone is rejected, so roll with it), take the advice the readers gave, follow it, and resubmit it to another journal. Here is yet another piece of simple, yet brillant advice.

Books:

-Today, no publisher wants a full manuscript, so send only a prospectus which follows the publishers exact guidelines. Another surprise! I was unaware that there was a change (not that I knew much about the old process of manuscript submission), but find this change environmentally friendly as well as friendlier for the submitters’ pocketbooks, as fewer copies have to be made of the manuscript.

Grants:

-What makes you a great academic writer may not make you a great grant proposal writer. The two types of writing take totally different perspectives and answer different questions. I have no clue how to write a grant proposal, but think perhaps a class on how to do so should be required for just about everyone to graduate, as there are many fields and businesses which could profit and grow from having this knowledge.

-Grants are about the tension between risk and security. To improve your chances of getting the grant you’re applying for, you ought not to have a subject too far out of the mainstream research community, but if you show you know your field, understand it, and wish to push the envelope just enough to be innovative, then that softens the risk your research poses and ups the chances that you’ll get the grant you are applying for.