Money, establishing tenure and a passion for ideas are just a few of the many primary and secondary motives for publishing, said sociologist Mark Schneider and linguist Joan Friedenberg, both of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.
Many of these motives, they said, can be fulfilled by different types of academic publishing. They have come up with 20 ways to get published in an academic environment. They are:
When I finally got around to writing my dissertation (that’s another story), I realized that its organization easily fell into several relatively self-contained chapters. Once I defended, I needed to convert as much of the dissertation to publishable articles as I could, for the “hound of tenure” was fast on my heels.
I realized that I had written each chapter with a possible article based on it already in mind. In philosophy one often takes on positions articulated by others, and seeks to attack them in a way that makes one’s own view more plausible and defended against those who would, or should, attack it. So, I “carved” the dissertation into three chunks and wrote them up as independent articles. I sent them to the same journals that had published the articles I was attacking, and they were accepted (usually subject to some revisions). Hence, my first three publications, followed by a fourth when one of my attackees sought to defend himself in print. Those, plus a couple of short pieces, secured a tenured appointment.
Isn’t research supposed to be EASIER with the advent of the Internet? Then why is it so hard to find that perfect piece of information for your journal article or textbook?
It’s hard because there are a couple of tricks you may not know..…yet. Those tricks (let’s call them “hints”) can help prevent junk information overload – and instead hone in on what you really need.
So you’ve written a provocative and timely piece, had it edited, and are now just chomping at the bit to have your article published. Publication can often be the hardest step of the process (hard to believe I know after toiling away so long on producing your article).
I’ve used the following strategies to get my articles published:
Write a remarkable cover letter. This is where you really need to sell your article. Describe why it is timely and relevant. Are you commenting on a recent article? Are you discussing an important piece of legislation, current event, or controversial policy or practice? The editor wants to know why your article belongs in their journal and why it would be a mistake for your article to go elsewhere.
Former journal editor Gerald Stone said an article isn’t dead until you as an author decides to bury it. Some authors, he said, don’t know that the letter they receive is an acceptance letter — the editor only wants the author to make revisions and resubmit. Instead, strangely, they take it as rejection.
For this reason, Stone said, when you get a letter from a journal that will tell you whether your article has been accepted or not, follow this procedure:
The purpose of writing is to transmit ideas, says Andrew Johnson, professor of Holistic Education at Minnesota State University, Mankato, not to show the reader how much you know about a particular subject. “I approach articles and books as if the reader knows nothing,” he said. “I enter a teaching mode, trying to make things as simple as possible. I have to bring my ideas to the reader. I’m not famous enough for the reader to come to me.”
