Getting published

I assume getting published during a degree process is very contextual. I assume it greatly depends on school, program, discipline etc. However, my next degree (PhD in Theology) will require publishing part of my dissertation. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks

 

A lot of that will depend on your dissertation topic. Usually your chair is the best person to ask which journals to submit for publication. It also depends what your department actually means when they say "publish."

Me to chair: "Shouldn't I publish part of my dissertation?"
Chair: "There is a fee you pay to UMI, and your dissertation will be in the UF library. There, you're published."

BTW, don't choose a chair who is planning on retiring in the new few years.

 

Well, I guess in that case, I'm already published. First doctoral dissertation sits on my shelf and my alma maters library shelf. It was flattering to receive an email a year or two ago from a doctoral student quoting my dissertation in his research.

Sounds like your chair was 'tired'

 

Now that is interesting. At NCU I was told that if I published part of my dissertation before it was all approved I could face "self-plagiarism" issues. Have you gotten other things published?

 

Does anyone here see anything wrong with this? Plagiarism is the act of stealing the work of others and passing it off as one's own. There is no such thing as self-plagiarism.

 

This may be actually a reference to copyright concerns. Many students are surprised to learn that there can be copyright issues if part or all of a dissertation is published somewhere before it is submitted to the university.

When you publish a paper in a book or journal, you are commonly required to sign an agreement that transfers the copyright to the publisher, as a condition of publication. This is particularly true if the book or journal is published by a for-profit entity, rather than a non-profit scholarly society. And if you sign such an agreement, then you would technically need to seek permission from the publisher before reusing that material in your dissertation (unless the publication agreement specifically permits such usage).

In practice, publishers normally allow previously-published material to be reused in dissertations. However, I understand that there have been cases where publishers barred further copying and distribution of a submitted dissertation (e.g. by the student, by the university, or by ProQuest) because the dissertation included material that had previously been published and copyrighted in an expensive book or journal. Like it or not, the publisher has the full legal right to do that, if the author transferred the copyright as a condition of publication.

 

Is that really true for most academic publishing houses? (I'm asking, not disputing... I have no idea how academic publishers operate.)

It's the opposite for most commercial magazine and book publishers. Generally, the author retains copyright and the publishing house purchases a license to publish the work.

Isn't it also true that academic journals don't pay authors, but frequently authors pay the journal to cover the cost of publishing their work? That seems like a horrible double whammy. You have to pay to give up your rights to your own work?

 

Maybe less so than it used to be. The Wikipedia article on "Scientific Journal" puts it like this:

********

Some journals do have "page charges", where authors are asked to pay (if they can) to help cover the cost of publication (such costs may be covered by research grants). However, page charges are most commonly associated with non-profit journals published by non-profit academic societies, who use them to help keep the subscription costs low. Such publishers -- since they aren't in it for the money -- also tend to be the most relaxed and cooperative regarding copyrights (at least in my experience).

So it's unlikely that you would face a harsh "double whammy" with a non-profit society. Yes, they may ask you to help subsidize the costs of journal publication, but they are normally reasonable when it comes to copyright permissions. The whole point of such societies is to promote their discipline, not to maximize revenue, so they are generally happy to authorize redistribution of their copyrighted material.

 

Yesh......

 

Well, this is becoming depressing.....

 

Getting "published" isn't that difficult, you can always find somewhere to have your information published, you can even pay to have it done. The more meaningful and difficult part is getting your work in a peer reviewed journal where your paper is sent to other "peers" in the same field as yours who critique your paper and ask you to make revisions before they will recommend it for publishing, and often they are very harsh. I heard UoP is starting their own journal so that they can get their students "published" in their own peer reviewed journal.

You don't even have to be associated with a university or business enterprise to get published as almost anyone can submit as long as your data and methodology are sound.

For many PhD and masters candidates at B&M universities, that is something they do with their advisors. They develop the skills to write their own papers by doing a critique of others. For scientific experiments, sometimes they will even re-run the experiments to see if they can be replicated.

 

Traditional B&M research universities commonly have some kind of thesis/publications office, where students and faculty can get advice on copyrights and other publishing issues. Don't know about DL universities.

For example, Texas A&M offers the following guidance:

So if you want to reproduce any previously copyrighted material in your Texas A&M thesis, you have to provide the university with documentation that you have legal permission to do so. And this includes your own previously published material, if you signed over the copyright when it was published.

I suspect the claim of "self-plagiarism" actually refers to copyright issues. If you have signed the copyright to your work over to a publisher, then you can no longer legally reuse it, unless you get permission.

 

There is a distinct "pecking order" among journals, just as there is among universities. A publication in Journal X counts for far more in academia than a publication in Journal Y -- just as a PhD from University A counts for much more in academia than a degree from University B.

If so, then my guess is that it wouldn't rank very highly in the journal hierarchy. But that's just a guess.

 

https://alumni.phoenix.edu/career-resources/journal-of-leadership-studies.aspx

 

Ah come on, don't trash UoP for trying to become more academic. It is pretty usual for Universities to "host" journals and I welcome it as a good step to take on issues like these on the road to become more research oriented. Indeed is the journal not very well ranked (or at all...), but that has nothing to do with UoP, but on how often the published articles are referenced.

The difficult part is getting published at a high profile journal. You really have to squeeze google for "journal ranking [your general area]" to identify the top journals in your field. For example (Journal Rankings for New Testament | Evangelical Textual Criticism) discusses existing rankings of Journals with a New Testament orientation.

 

Many universities have professional publications - - - XYZ University Press. It's often used to publish the research of the various peoples (grad students included) who are associated with the university. I know that UNISA has its own "university press" and I believe that it's a general requirement of the university that doctoral students publish at least one journal article based upon their dissertation. Sometimes this is based on the lit review and sometimes it may include the preliminary data from a piece of qualitative research.

Unisa Online - Unisa Press

 

I appreciate all the info. It's definitely a lot of help. Thanks.

 

Dr.J,

Have you joined the Society for Pentecostal Studies? Excellent resource for doing research, presenting papers, networking, and publishing.

Have you considered publishing anything from your DMin. research?

I'll send you a pm with a few ideas on publishing. When you get a chance, you can do a search on Dr. Anthony Pina's posts on the topic. He's widely published and he has given some good advice on the process.

Roscoe

 

No, I haven't joined. I don't know why I've never even considered it.