April 2008

Notes from the Professional Skills Panel on Publication

April 16, 2008

Speakers: Molly Hardy, Erin Hurt, Ann Cvetkovich, John Rumrich, James Cox

Student Advice:

- Confronting anxiety about publishing

- Revise and Resubmit:

When you get resubmit, address all the points that were made in your readers’ response so that, upon re-reading, the editors know you’re attending to everything

- Where to send?

Could different groups collate a list of journals in each field (see Lists of Top 5 Journals in each field on Prof Skills page)
On selecting a journal: narrow to 3-4 journals and read through the past 5 or 6 issues

- Constantly have something in the works—either out or being generated, revised, etc.

Since the review process is sometimes (usually) so long and arduous and we’re encouraged to have something published (or at least accepted) before going out on the market, it’s a good idea to be working something up
At the same time, you don’t want to send something out that you haven’t put a lot of work into. Many pieces (e.g. MA report, etc.) have been revised and reworked several times

- Create deadlines for working a seminar paper into an article

Faculty Advice (Each faculty panelist is serving or has served on the editorial boards of journals in their respective fields):

- Confronting anxiety about publishing:

Develop a tough skin
Don’t take the reviews you get personally (see notes below about difficulties of the review process)
"Be practical and tactical"
Practice: even if your essay doesn’t get accepted use it as motivation; turn that rejection into an advantage

- Journal Selection:

Rather than necessarily going for the most prestigious journal, just try to get published because the process is similar for each and going through that process is a source of professionalization in itself. The practice never hurts
Perhaps identify journals associated with different departments; if you can determine who’ll be reading your article, you can probably play to their interests (or to their egos)
Generalist journals without a particular bias may be a good starting level since they often have a relatively expeditious review process; if your work is too specialized they’ll let you know
Do you want to submit to a journal that accepts 1 in 10,000 or 1 in 50? Be clever about how you decide

- Editorial perspective on article selection:

Selection rate low, but there are also many submissions that just don’t fit the journal’s ethos
Likelihood of getting accepted increases when the article fits (see advice above for gaining a fluency in the journal’s content, etc.); ask yourself, does this make a large intervention in the field.

- Editorial perspective on review process:

Difficulty of finding good readers
Problems with communication between authors and editors; what are the codes of etiquette for talking to people you don’t know?
- Often leads to the impersonal nature of many response letters
Length of time:
- Since we all have a lot of work, it’s time-consuming to lay out constructively what a paper/author needs to do in revision, etc.

- Publication and Recruitment

There’s nothing that gets you recruited more effectively than good publications in strong journals: a good reader response turns more heads than a letter of recommendation
At the same time, consider your institutional affiliation and the environment you’re in—what does “I’m getting my degree from UT English” mean to a recruiter?

- Use your professors

Lean on mentors and advisors for substantive and detailed guidance on your work.

- Special issues:

Other publishers pay attention to special issues so articles often get tapped for larger publications

- Making your publications work for you

Establishing familiarity with the process and getting into one journal can sometimes lead to positions as readers or assistants to editors, etc.