Ready—Set—Publish!

Maureen Pettitt, Ph.D.Maureen Pettitt, Ph.D.

Skagit Valley CollegeSkagit Valley College

PNAIRP 2007PNAIRP 2007

Victoria, BCVictoria, BC

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

The outcomes of any serious research can only be to make two questions grow where only one grew before.

~Thorstein Veblen

Generating Potential Topics:Passion or Practical?

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

The Research Journal

Record your ideas!!!!

Potential Publication Outlets

1. What potential audiences might be interested in your research?

2. Do you have a preference for print journals? E-journals?

3. 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

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

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

Collaborate or Fly Solo?

Research Articles

• Conceptual framework

• Context

• The research question(s)

• Literature review

• Methodology

• Empirical findings

• Implications for practice or policy

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

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/

Writing Relationships

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

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!

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…

Writing Tips

EDIT, EDIT, EDIT

No author dislikes to be edited as much as he dislikes not to be published.

~ Russel Lynes

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

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

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.

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

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

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?

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

Thanks for your attention!!!Thanks for your attention!!!

Questions?Questions?

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