Tag Archives: Academic publishing

Who oversees journal editors?

Who oversees journal editors?

Editors and reviewers are the most important authorities in academic publishing because they read, examine and ultimately decide the fate of a submitted paper. This work is often not paid, making the commitment to it even more admirable. However, this fascinating process becomes suspicious when the editorial board of a journal refuses to publish a […] … learn more→

Residential writing retreats: three wishes for academic output

Residential writing retreats: three wishes for academic output

If academia was a Disney film and I was a street rat (early career researcher) living on the sandy backstreets of Agrabah, who happened to summon a genie, my three top-of-my-head wishes would be: publications, grant money, and a pipeline of non-traditional research outputs. But after the wishes were granted and I was flying away on […] … learn more→

The plight of University Presses

The plight of University Presses

The Kentucky General Assembly recently passed a budget that reduces funding for higher education by 6.25 percent, and will require cuts of as much as $24 million at the two major state universities. Numerous programs may have to be shuttered as a consequence, most likely including the University Press of Kentucky (UPK), which stands to lose its […] … learn more→

Publishers cannot afford to be coy about ethical breaches

Publishers cannot afford to be coy about ethical breaches

There are rising concerns about the reliability of academic research, yet even when papers are retracted, the reasons are often left unexplained. We recently studied 734 peer-reviewed journals in economics and identified 55 papers retracted for reasons other than “accidental duplication” or “administrative error”. Of those, 28 gave no clear indication of whether any questionable […] … learn more→

‘Publish or perish’ is perverse without an effective publishing system

‘Publish or perish’ is perverse without an effective publishing system

Making publication criteria a key requirement for academic promotion in Pakistan was always going to throw up problems. First, it took its inevitable toll on teaching, with ambitious scholars becoming more intent on churning out papers. The biggest rewards are reserved for those who publish in so-called high-impact international journals. Such a policy has well-known […] … learn more→

Rage against the academic publishing machine does not have to be futile

Rage against the academic publishing machine does not have to be futile

The “unstoppable machine”. That is how Yiannis Gabriel, one of the UK’s leading social thinkers, labelled the academic-publishing complex in a recent piece for Times Higher Education (“We must rescue social science research from obscurity”, Opinion, August 10). His ire was directed, in particular, at social science research, which he sees as falling into aimless, […] … learn more→

Academic journal publishing is headed for a day of reckoning

Academic journal publishing is headed for a day of reckoning

Imagine a researcher working under deadline on a funding proposal for a new project. This is the day she’s dedicated to literature review – pulling examples from existing research in published journals to provide evidence for her great idea. Creating an up-to-date picture of where things stand in this narrow corner of her field involves […] … learn more→

Publishers vs ResearchGate: an academic’s view

Publishers vs ResearchGate: an academic’s view

Cast your mind back 20 years, to 1997. Tony Blair had just entered Downing Street and in the music industry CDs dominated and the A&R guy was king. Within a few short years, the internet had changed the music industry forever, through the music sharing site Napster. Today, Napster is dead and gone (although the brand name […] … learn more→

Academic publishing in English

Academic publishing in English

This week I was at a sociology of education summer school. As you might expect, I was there to talk about academic writing and publishing. In this context, I wanted to situate my usual topic in a wider context, and not simply offer strategies and advice. Here’s the abstract I wrote for the ‘lecture’: Educational […] … learn more→