I received “official notice” that summer is coming to end by one of the many random emails I (somehow) subscribe to. As if there weren’t enough signs for me already—raining for days straight, temperatures taking a significant dive, and (possibly the most dreaded) back to school commercials. Growing up in a household in which both parents worked in schools (one a middle school teacher and the other a speech therapist), we were trained to avert our eyes when school supplies were moved to the front of the store, overflowing in anticipation of the school year to come.

Of course my parents loved what they did, but they also enjoyed their time off. Summer was always for accomplishing everything that there wasn’t time for during the school year. Even now, years later, I still have a bit of that ‘summer is a time to get things done’ attitude. August, inevitably then, is when I try to pack every last thing in that I had on my summer list that got put off for one reason or another. How about you, are you also trying to pack everything in, hours of writing, before the start of the school year? Or can you no longer live in denial that fall won’t come this year because your school year has already begun?

Either way, happy writing!

How to turn your dissertation into journal articles
You’ve finished your dissertation; now how do you turn that into journal articles? Eva Lantsoght gives insight and advice for those of you ready to tackle this next challenge.

writing and routine
Pat Thomson always gives such sound advice, and this piece is no exception. Thomson discusses the idea of a writing routine and that all academic writers should have one, whatever it is. This piece is also laced with humor as she shares writing routines of famous authors found in Celia Blue Johnson’s book, Odd Typewriters.

Social Writing As An Introvert
Academic writing doesn’t have to be done in solitude. This is an excellent piece on how to make your writing more social in an environment that often is the opposite. How do you make your writing more social? Will you implement any of the ways Lisa Munro is using to make her writing more social?

How To Submit A Research Paper To A Journal
Are you about to submit your first research paper to a journal? For helpful tips on the process, read this piece by Andrew Ghillyer. The blue text throughout this article links to other helpful, related information.

Advice for Aspiring Academics
For early career researchers and young scholars looking for advice on publishing, CVs, and tenure track this is your must read. I especially like tips one-three. 🙂

8 reasons why journals reject manuscripts
This is actually an infographic that gives eight common reasons why a journal article is rejected. Along with the reason for rejection, it also gives a “what you should do” response.

World University Rankings blog: dealing with freak research papers
Last week I shared that there has been a notable spike in the number of technical reports whose author counts have exceeded 1,000. Now, this week, the Times Higher Education announced that they will exclude roughly 600 papers from their World University Rankings of more than 11 million research papers published between 2009 and 2014. This decision is largely due to papers with thousands of authors, which could “artificially inflate a university’s research impact score”. Consider this your industry news piece of the week.

Scholars Talk Writing: Sam Wineburg
Both entertaining and insightful, this interview with Sam Wineburg is well worth reading.

The rise of textbook prices: Authors give their perspective
Disclaimer: This is actually a blog post that was posted here, on Abstract, and written by me. I’m including it because this is a very important, and timely, topic. I hope you will, as a textbook author, add your own thoughts on this topic in the comments section of that post.