Getting published

I am looking at getting published to start building a stronger resume/CV for teaching. Do article in trade magazines count? I realize they are not as "high ranking" as peer journals but I was wondering if they count.

Also, I have written several blurbs for the company newsletter (I assume these do not count since I conrtol the newsletter) and plan to write something for another company's newsletter. I assume that would count.

I guess the main question is - does it have to be a peer journal or can it be just about anything like these-
24x7 Magazine - http://www.24x7mag.com
HRB - http://harvardbusiness.org

 

My opinion - Everything exists on a continuum. Some journals are more prestigious than others. While it might be better to be published in journal A it is better to be published in journal X than to not be published at all.

 

Have you considered writing a book?

I an acquainted with the writer of a highly regarded engineering book (and I have three editions of this book in my library). This writer also publishes books through Lulu (and I bought an electronic copy of one of these books).

Here are some Lulu books on Business (since you in a business program).
http://www.lulu.com/category/books/business_economics/3

To self publish on Lulu see here:
http://www.lulu.com/publish/index.php?cid=en_tab_publish

As long as your book topic is somewhat unique, or has a very limited market, I think Lulu is a great way to publish. Of course there is no normal peer review but if you could find someone to review it then maybe you could include their review on the cover or in end-papers.

 

That is a plan down the road. Thanks for the links.

 

I'm sorry to say that articles on trade magazines or blog sites don't count towards scholar publications. They have to be on peer reviewed publications.

Unfortunately, there is no easy way to publish but to send your articles to journals and wait for feedback. It takes about a year to get a good publication. I would set a target of one or two publications per year. You can get your resume full of garbage publications from blogs, online magazines, lulu, etc but that would cause the same effect of having degree mills in your resume.

If you have a good dissertation, you might want to publish few articles from there.

 

I'm not an expert, but would presenting at conferences help?

 

I agree with this but only to a limited extent. If I, as an engineer, were to write an article published by "Popular Mechanics" (not a peer reviewed scholarly publication) I would definitely list it on my vitae and I do not believe that there is any way this could be seen as being the equivalent to listing a degree from a mill.

 

I have a U of California faculty CV in my hand and it includes a section "Outreach and K-12 Education."
It includes dates of interviews, letters, and columns in local newspapers and .
public lectures.

So I interpret this to mean that trying to educate the public at large is an important in some academic areas.

 

You are right, I meant things like self publishing, blog sites, etc. I have seen few resumes with tons of articles to blog sites, this might fool few people but not a hiring committee searching for a serious researcher.

Serious publications take time so I would target for one or two a year. Tenure track faculty are expected to publish two a year so if you do this part time, I would say one is enough. It is really time consuming, it takes time to prepare a draft, submit it, review it, submit again, etc. A piece of advice is to publish with a coauthor that has an established name, journals tend to be more receptive when the name of a professor from a well known University is included rather than a part time faculty teacher at an online school.

 

Helpful resources:

* Persist and Publish: Helpful Hints for Academic Writing and Publishing by Ralph E. Markin and T.F. Riggar (University Press of Colorado, 1991).

* A Guide to Academic Writing by Jeffrey A. Cantor (Praeger, 1993).


Roscoe

 

Lulu is a great option. Createspace is another great option for self-publishing. The profit margins are greater with Createspace plus you get instant listing on Amazon.com

www.createspace.com

 

Speaking as one who hires faculty, these are the best items to have in your vita:

* Peer-reviewed journal publications
* Books published by a recognized publisher
* Peer-reviewed book chapters
* Papers presented at professional conferences (many will publish your paper in the conference proceedings)

These are also fine to have in your vita (not as desirable as those above)

* Books published by a minor publisher
* Publications in applied professional journals and magazines

These are OK to have in your vita:

* Self-published or "vanity press" type books
* Articles in popular magazines, newsletters, newspapers, etc.

Any publication is good and I would never consider a listing for a publication in a trade magazine or company newsletter as anything equivalent to a diploma mill. I would not necessarily list a blog as a publication. I would list it in a separate section.

 

How would you consider 8,000 posts on an obscure education forum?

 

Why, a Distinguished Senior Member, of course!

 

Peer Reviewed Publications are Key

I am currently working toward promotion to Associate Professor in 2012. I have been conferring with Senior faculty and administrators about this and receiving helpful guidance.

The general consensus at my Institution of Higher Learning is that Peer Reviewed Publications are KEY, KEY, KEY. They carry way more weight than non-peer reviewed articles. Presentations are desirable of course, however they do not carry the same weight as the publications do. Most faculty go so far as to list the peer reviewed publications separately from non-peer reviewed publications on the CV.

What is particularly valued are faculty who undertake research, publish the findings in peer reviewed journals, and then are invited to present their research findings at professional conferences. This suggest an active path of research, publication and dissemination of the results to others in the field. ~KLM~

 

The best advice seen in this thread refers to breaking down your dissertation into two or three publishable works then submitted to peer journals.

You'll hear a lot of talk at universities known for putting people into tenure track positions about developing and maintaining a publication stream. (not necessarily getting published itself as the stream if well-maintained will eventually get you something published if the work is done well)

It's far more important in the beginning to get yourself in the groove of having one or two things constantly in peer review in order to get your name out there and recognized. It shows you're doing research and the peer review process, while convoluted and provincial will eventually ensure your writing and research improves.

The emergent properties of course are then an awesome dissertation, decent publications and an academic reputation that carries you over time to the places you want to be at.

Best,
Al

Other piece of advice: Find out what journal has the best reputation in your field and get a subscription or constantly review what's in it. You'll find ideas for research spring from others' work and you may be able to find collaborators this way.

The above is also excellent advice for anyone trying to get into a top doctoral program. If you go into interviews not knowing anything about the field, you're about ten leagues behind the majority of the other candidates.

 

I'm still an undergrad, so don't have much experience in the World of Academia, but have you considered Oxford Open Journals? They still have to be accepted for publication, but you have the option to make them available online immediately, so they show up in Google Scholar and will get cited more.

I have been thinking a lot about this subject as well. I run an information service (not-for-profit), so I publish online a LOT. It's jut the most cost-effective way to do it. But lately I've been thinking about compiling/editing everything so far into an actual book for consumers. While it's not the same as a formal research publication, I'm hoping it has some value on a CV for doctoral programs.

If you have a website that you want taken seriously, one key is to not have a blog-style layout. Blogs have recent posts on the front page, regular websites have an intro with links to key areas.

 

**Millenial Advice**

Apology for the topic departure -- this is an interesting insight and definitely from a source worth trusting... an internet-native undergraduate!

Might be helpful for those of us who are "slanging" on the web in addition to the day job and adjuncting ; the main entry portal of a network of personal content and writing might be seen as more professional if it doesn't have a bloggy layout.

Karolyn

 

I got so excited about Griffin's blog format aside that I missed the main point I wanted to make about his post:

Oxford Open Journal service is a paid option for authors. It doesn't sound like pay-for-publication, but it is close enough that I'd recommend against it for tenure-minded individuals.

From http://www.oxfordjournals.org/oxfordopen/:
Through this initiative, authors of accepted papers will be given the option of paying an open access publication charge to make their paper freely available online immediately via the journal website, meaning that readers will not need a journal subscription to view open access content. If an author does not choose to pay the open access publication charge, their paper will be published in the normal manner, but it will not be made freely available online immediately. Therefore there will be a mixture of non-open access and open access original research papers within each journal. Open access articles will be clearly indicated on the online journal's contents page.

 

Nope; it sounds like what they say it is - an open-access option. Nothing bad about it, especially for relatively high impact journals like those Oxford published. But I'd say it's mostly for natural science folks.

I wish I had material to try get into one of their journals (The Computer Journal, J. Logic and Computation). Great venues.