developing skills for publishing research articles internationally margaret cargill researcher...

Developing skills for publishing research articles internationally


Margaret CargillResearcher Education and Development, Adelaide Graduate Centre

The University of Adelaide, Australia

Visiting Lecture

Presented at the Baoshan Campus, Shanghai University

9 November 2006


The University of Adelaide, South Australia


Margaret CargillBA, Dip Ed, MEd(TESOL) Has provided writing development for postgraduate research

students and academic staff in Agricultural and Ecological Sciences for 15 years

Runs collaborative paper writing workshops for state and national research organisations in Australia and at U of A

Has taught English for Specific Purposes in Australia, Switzerland, Tonga, Vietnam, Spain and China

Is researching the effectiveness of the approach used in this workshop; 2 papers to date

Editor of TESOL in Context, journal of the Australian Council of TESOL Associations; active reviewer for international journals and conferences


Outline The challenge Transferable teaching approach Example materials: referee criteria and

article structures Analysis of a sample empirical paper Conclusions for intending authors


The challenge Getting research published internationally

is a universal challenge More so for writers of English as an

Additional Language (EAL) Incorporates challenges

– with language– with research content– with showing membership of the international

research community


My experience addressing the challenge with writers of English as a first language with EAL research students in Australia With EAL writers in China

– Agricultural and ecological researchers – Research students (non-English-majors)– Annual 5-day workshops since 2001 – Funded by science organisations, e.g.

• Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)• Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research

– This trip for purposes of research on implementation of the teaching methodology in Chinese contexts


Transferable teaching approach - CIPSE CIPSE = Collaborative Interdisciplinary

Publication Skills Education Based on

– Results of genre analysis studies of research articles (RAs)

– Collaboration with ‘expert informants’ (authors, editors, referees) from content field

– Guided analysis of selected articles from field– Methodology from EAP/ESP– Participants work on writing a paper from their own

results– Referees’ requirements highlighted and applied


Today’s presentation addresses -

English graduate students and teachers who want to publish their own research

Research supervisors who want to help their students publish

Possibilities for developing the CIPSE approach through ongoing contact with interested teachers in the future


Examples of materials

Referee guidelines Article structures

– Empirical papers (data is collected and analysed)

– Argument papers (including papers about works of literature such as novels and plays): not covered today, but see Yang and Allison (2004), English for Specific Purposes 23: 264-279


The approval process (1)

Author submits manuscript with covering letter – address journal scope here

Editor decides if worthy of refereeing If yes, sends to (usually) 2 experts in the

field for review, usually ‘blind’ (no names) Each referee writes a report based on

guidelines/criteria provided by editor


The approval process (2)

Editor makes final decision:– Accept (rare)– Accept with minor revisions (detailed in report)– Revise and resubmit (will be reviewed again)– Reject

Editor’s letters to contributor: needs very careful scrutiny to avoid over-reactions


What are referees looking for? Interesting to the readers of the journal Grounded in the/a relevant literature (=

articles written by others on the topic) Methodologically sound Structure and organisation as expected Format requirements met (referencing etc) Makes an important contribution to the

field


Additional referee factors

Refereeing is unpaid work for busy people. Language problems may annoy, or impede full

understanding of intended meaning (Flowerdew 2001). Referees may not have skills/interest to edit text. Contributors can and should engage with referee

comments in some instances.


Genre analysis insights into article structure

Most work done on Introductions (eg Swales 1990, Samraj 2002)

Focus is on papers which report a study– Results, Discussions, Conclusions (eg Brett 1994, Holmes 1997,

Yang & Allison 2003)

Teaching texts also available (Weissberg and Buker 1990)

Pedagogical summaries useful for novice writers Results on RAs in Applied Linguistics suggest

considerable flexibility (Yang & Allison 2003, 2004)


IMRAD: the logic behind the structure Abstract Introduction

Methods

Results

Discussion/Conclusion/ Pedagogic implications

Materials and

methods

Results

Abstract

Introduction

Discussion


Results: the ‘driver’

Relates to ‘importance’ of contribution Four questions to ask about your results:

– What exactly do my results say? (= concise summary)

– What do these results mean in their context? (= conclusions that can be drawn)

– Who needs to know this? (= my audience)– Why do they need to know? (= contribution to

ongoing work in the field) (Cargill 2004)


Audience issues Consider starting with less famous journals that

target the audience you want to reach When seeking a journal, go to its internet

homepage and check out the section called Scope and Coverage / Audience.

Email the editor asking if your topic is suitable. Aim to scan several issues of the journal, and read

several papers, to get an idea of the style and approach – even titles and abstracts only.

Try to refer to some articles in the same journal (see journal homepage for abstracts).


Example paper for today’s talk

Yang Ruiying and Desmond Allison (2003)

Research articles in applied linguistics:

moving from results to conclusions.

English for Specific Purposes 22, 365-385


Yang and Allison’s Results

Question AnswerWhat do the results say?

Organisational options in AL concluding sections; moves/steps in AL Discussions; able to capture data of 20 RAs insightfully

What do they mean in context?

Considering all types of concluding sections together increases usefulness of analysis for research and teaching purposes

Who needs to know?

Genre-analysis researchers; those teaching students to write research articles in AL

Why? To expand knowledge of RA structure; potentially to improve teaching effectiveness


The five stages of an Introduction (after Weissberg and Buker 1990)

General

Specific

1. General statements about a field of research to provide the reader with a setting or context for the problem to be reported and claim its centrality

2. More specific statements about the aspects of the problem already studied by other researchers, laying a foundation of information already known

3. Statements that indicate the need for more investigation to create a gap or research niche for the present study

4. Very specific statements giving the purpose or objective of the author’s study or its principal activity

5. Optional statement(s) that give a value or justification for carrying out the study


Stage Realisation1- Setting RAs, the central genre of knowledge production, have

received extensive attention in genre analysis…

2- Previous wk Most studies have… Much research has been done on…

3- Gap So far, virtually no published research takes account of the influence of neighbouring sections… Despite more recent progress in understanding selected sections, the general picture remains unclear.

4- Present aim Our study accordingly explores some of the ways in which empirical research articles in one discipline proceed from presenting results through to closure.

5- Justification The Results and subsequent sections are crucial and essentially related stages of RAs, in which …

Extra step Our paper develops as follows. After reviewing…, we briefly describe…


Conclusions for intending authors (1)

Consider from the planning stages how you will aim to meet refereeing criteria.

Select a ‘package’ of results and match to a suitable journal.

Become an apprentice genre analyst: read all papers for genre features as well as content.



Consider informal ‘journal clubs’ to discuss articles – Where in the article do the authors make and

substantiate their claims of ‘relevance’, ‘importance’, etc.?

– Can you identify possible ‘sentence templates’ that could be re-used for similar purposes?



Publishing a paper is joining an inter-national conversation.– Listen to others’ voices keenly as preparation for

writing (ie read their papers).– Think about features of the Chinese context that

may form a point of interest or comparison for your international audience.


Conclusions for intending authors (4) Recent research highlights the tension

between text and context in learning research writing (eg Johns and Swales 2002).

A valuable contribution to understanding the context of the research article can come from collaborating with ‘insider’ experts.

However, the context of RAs is not (and should not be seen as) fixed (Canagarajah 2002).


The future?

The international academy needs to hear more of the voices of teachers and researchers of English writing in China.

Real internationalisation requires multi-lateral conversations.

Much work remains– in learning / teaching publishing skills, and– in researching contexts and outcomes.


Thank you

Margaret Cargill

[email protected]


References Brett, P. (1994). “A genre analysis of the Results section of sociology articles.” English for Specific Purposes

13(1): 47-59. Canagarajah, S. (2002) "Multilingual writers and the academic community: towards a critical relationship."

Journal of English for Academic Purposes 1: 29-44. Cargill, M. (2004). “Transferable skills within research degrees: a collaborative genre-based approach to

developing publication skills and its implications for research education.” Teaching in Higher Education 9(1): 83-98.

Flowerdew, J. (2001). “Attitudes of journal editors to nonnative speaker contributions.” TESOL Quarterly 35(1): 121-150.

Holmes, R. (1997). “Genre analysis, and the social sciences: an investigation of the structure of research article discussion sections in three disciplines.” English for Specific Purposes 16(4): 321-337.

Johns, A. M. and J. M. Swales (2002). “Literacy and disciplinary practices: opening and closing perspectives.” Journal of English for Academic Purposes 1: 13-28.

Samraj, B. (2002). “Introductions to research articles: variations across disciplines.” English for Specific Purposes 21(1): 1-18.

Swales, J. (1990). Genre analysis: English in academic and research settings. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

Weissberg, R. and S. Buker (1990). Writing Up Research: Experimental research report writing for students of English. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, USA, Prentice Hall Regents.

Yang, R. and D. Allison (2003). “Research articles in applied linguistics: moving from results to conclusions.” English for Specific Purposes 22: 365-385.Yang, R. and D. Allison (2004). "Research articles in applied linguistics: structures from a functional perspective.“ English for Specific Purposes 23: 264-279.

developing skills for publishing research articles internationally margaret cargill researcher...

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