If you’re like most academic authors I know, you have an abundance of ideas that either keep you up at night or wake you up early in the morning. Ray Bradbury once said, “I don’t need an alarm clock. My ideas wake me.” These ideas matter. Not all of them will become published manuscripts, but they all matter. They move you forward and it’s important that you get them out through your writing.

There will be periods of time when the ideas flow more readily and others where you may spend more time searching (or researching) for them, but wherever you are in that cycle, let them awaken you to the possibilities of what you have to contribute through your work. Happy writing!

#startingthePhD? managing expectations

If you are starting out on a PhD you are probably expecting it to be hard work. That’s not wrong. A doctorate isn’t easy – it’s an extended piece of work over a long period of time. It takes energy and effort to stay focused and working on working on.  Stamina. But you can’t expect to maintain the same pace and intensity throughout. There’s inevitably be some ups and downs.  And some of these can be anticipated.

Can action-oriented research help social science be more relevant?

In his posthumous address to his discipline, the late public administration scholar Christopher Pollitt lamented its diminishing relevance and standing, laying blame on a deep-seated institutional division. On one side he noted a tendency toward ‘detached scholasticism’ in which academics engaged in insular and increasingly abstracted conversations with little relevance, or even concern, for the practical utility of their research. On the other was a form of ‘high-brow management consultancy’, driven by salesmanship and superficiality and with little accompanying interest in ethical, informed and cumulative scholarship. Pollitt’s point was not that either tendency was wholly unhelpful, but that a relevant position in the applied social sciences lay somewhere in between, in what he earlier called the ‘poorly mapped shadowland’ bridging practice and theory.

The global pandemic and scholarly societies

So much has changed since mid-March, and operationally, the ability of societies to serve the needs of membership and academic, or professional communities has been brought into sharp relief. How are academic and professional societies coping as the global coronavirus pandemic continues to cast a shadow — certainly well into 2021 and very likely into 2022 and beyond?

Imposter syndrome is not real, but I call mine ‘Beryl’.

My failure avoidance leads to a tendency for overwork. I drive myself harder than any manager will, mostly out of fear of failure rather than love for the work. My feelings of insecurity make me a good employee and student, but they also put me at risk for burn out and exhaustion.

Race and racism in academic publishing: A case study from Elsevier – part 1

In a two-part special program, Copyright Clearance Center and Elsevier explore how race and racism shape the academic knowledge system. This first segment considers the internal challenges facing publishers and editors – from policies around terminology to processes that govern the selection of editorial boards.

Introducing Solutions Source for Scholarly Communications

The Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP) is excited to announce the official launch of Solutions Source for Scholarly Communications, a comprehensive public resource for the publishing community to find service providers across the industry, stay on top of scholarly communication events, and discover new opportunities!