Publishing

Wanting to make progress in your academic career?  An important step is to consider which journals you are publishing in.  It’s fine to publish in both what is considered to be top-tier journals and lower tiered journals, ensuring of course that they are not predatory.  Search Cabell’s site so as to stay clear of predatory journals.

I have found that creating a list of journals in your discipline is a good start.  The list may include the names of journals in which you or your colleagues and key players in your field have published work.  They may also be journals for which you are a reviewer or associate editor.  If you’re stumped and can’t think of any journals, consider asking a few colleagues in your discipline to recommend a few names of journals.  This should assist with creating a list of at least 5-10 journals.  Of course, the list can be refined overtime to include additional journals or to remove journals.

Once you have that list, it’s great to identify which journals are tier 1 and tier 2 journals.  Amy Guptill’s ‘Four Tiers of Sources and How to Tell the Difference’ is quite helpful in this regard.  If you are considering a promotion, you want to have some of your work published in these journals because this suggests that your scholarly output is of a high quality, which promotion committees look for.  To identify journals in my discipline that are tier 1 and 2 journals, I did a simple Google search, which I think was the quickest way to get this information.  I typed in ‘tier 1 journals in educational leadership and management’, which produced some decent results.  I first looked at the results of Google’s AI overview, which generated a short but useful list.  Google Scholar’s top publications list was exceptionally useful.  I was not only able to identify if any from my list of journals were tier 1, but I got the names of a few more journals, which I had not considered adding to my list.

Surprisingly, I also found an article, entitled “Where Should Educational Leadership Authors Publish to Get Noticed by the Top Journals in the Discipline?” written by Jayson W. Richardson and Scott McLeod.  This find confirmed for me that there were others who thought this exercise important enough to publish so that others like me, and you, can be guided.  The article also served as a verification that I had identified the top journals in my discipline, although there were a few that I had that were missing from the authors’ list.  Nonetheless, to you early career researchers in the field of educational leadership and management, I recommend reading the article and to everyone within the discipline and in other disciplines, I hope that you find this post helpful for generating your own list so that you can target those high tiered publication outlets and get that promotion!

In converting your dissertation to a journal article, you may want to know why you should publish in a journal. I will discuss the reasons why I think you should publish in a journal below.

Why publish in a journal?

Global reach is critical as a researcher and academic. Many times, we conduct valuable research and no-one has access to it. Journals and open access journals allow for greater availability and access to your work. Another important aspect of publishing in a journal is the peer-review journey. I call it a journey because with each peer-review, I learn something new. I learn a new concept, idea, or way of thinking. I would like to suggest that you use the peer-reviewers’ suggestions as feedback and feedforward. With each peer-review, our knowledge is enhanced.

As an early career academic, publishing in a journal helps to build your scholarly profile. It shows that you are conducting research, writing and publishing which gives you an added edge over someone else who is not doing so. It also helps in the PhD process. Moreover, it helps you to obtain academic positions since most Universities look for lecturers who publish regularly and have a robust repertoire of publications. Journal publications are highly valued in academia. If you wish to move up the academic ladder, you need to publish in journals.

Differences between dissertation and journal article

There are several differences between the dissertation and the journal article. I have chosen to use the acronym O (outline) P (Purpose) A (Audience) (German for grandfather) to indicate the differences. There are differences in the outline which is organized into chapters in the dissertation but in the journal article it is organized into headings and sub-headings. The purpose is different for the dissertation where there are academic expectations of the supervisor and internal and external examiners. However, the peer-reviewers’ expectations are different. The audience is also different. The dissertation is directed at the supervisor and examiners with limited audience, however, the journal article is read by a diverse group of people and has more reach.

Finding the Right Journal

In order to find the right journal, you should identify the most suitable journal. First of all, list the available journals within your research field. This will give you an idea of the range of suitable options and, with further examination, learn more details concerning the adequacy of your paper to its scope and the fulfillment of your expectations regarding the journal’s profile (e.g. audience and/or rank). You can also identify the journal that appears most in the reference list of your thesis. Ask yourself: Which journals have I used in my dissertation? Additionally, you can read the journal’s aim and scope in order to determine its fit for your proposed article. There are also similar sections on editorial policies which should be read in order to evaluate the fit and any specific content requirements. You also need to pay special attention to the topics published in the journal. Look at the topics covered in the journal and determine its fit for your article.  Peruse past issues, abstracts, table of contents- are there similar papers that have been published?

Ensure that your target journal accepts the kind of article you want to publish. Use previously published papers (at least three) from the target journal as examples for the format of the paper. They help in understanding what the peer-reviewers would expect. The Impact Factor is an important measurement but also remember to consider the prestige of the authors publishing in it and see if your research is at a similar level. Read the review process and the length of time taken for responses and feedback to manuscripts submitted. How will your paper be reviewed? The journal’s website should mention the details of the peer review process. Check details of copyright/license agreements and whether publication before or after your thesis submission is allowed.

Using websites to find the journal-fit

Elsevier offers a wide range of journals. Therefore, choosing the best one to publish your research paper should be easier with proper support and guidance. Using the JournalFinder, you can match your journal article and learn more about each journal available.

• https://journalfinder.elsevier.com/
• Enter the title and abstract of your paper.
• Indicate the keywords.
• Indicate the Field of Research (note that there is no field for education).
• Click on Find Journal.

Using Journal Finder-Open Access, click on the following link https://doaj.org/.  You can search by journal, search by: Title, ISSN (International Standard Serial Number), Subject, and Publisher, or search by journal article: Title, Abstract, Subject, Author. You can also use Journal/Author/Name/Estimator (JANE) at https://jane.biosemantics.org/. This relies on Pub Med as the database where journals are sourced. It gives good information on other journals with similar information. You can also enter your abstract and get additional information on the topic.

Good luck and all the best with converting your dissertation into a journal article.

Dr. Charmaine Bissessar is Senior Lecturer and Director of Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CoETaL) at the University of Guyana. Dr. Bissessar is also interim Director of Educational Onlining Support Services (EdOSS). Her research interests encompass education, professional development, quality assurance in education and online learning and teaching. 

This article is an encapsulation of the presentation I did in a webinar hosted by Emerald Insight on June 22, 2022.  The full webinar may be accessed via this link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWhVBbkvxj8&t=1205s

Once your research has been published, what is next? Do you have a role to play in getting it to the audiences for which it was intended? Why do you need to do so anyway?  And, if you need to, what technologies should you use?  It is important that you, the researcher, communicate information about your published works to various publics by utilising technology. Some synonyms for ‘advertising’ as used in the title of this piece are, promoting, marketing, and communicating.  I will explore four areas:

1. Why should you communicate your research?
2. What are some considerations in choosing technologies to communicate your research?
3. What factors should you consider in assigning keywords to your research?
4. What are some technological tools available to you for communicating your research?

1. Why should you communicate your research?

One of the major reasons for promoting your research is the need to show evidence of the impact – reach and influence – of your work.  You also want to channel your research to the relevant audiences. Is your research reaching its intended audience?  Are audiences other than those for whom it is intended, viewing, downloading, accessing and citing your work? Additionally you need to communicate your research in order to network with other researchers and stakeholders in your area of research, for visibility and discoverability and to facilitate retrievability.

You are the best person to market your research.  You know your research. You can portion it into the pieces your stakeholders need to access. You may package it in images, videos, audio, and other avenues that the user/stakeholder/student/patron/public/parents/masses can easily find.  Additionally, you may distribute/share your research using various technological tools, which I will identify. But, before I identify the technologies here are some considerations.

 

2. Assigning Keywords.

For the end-user or audience requiring information, looking for articles, research or other information, is like looking for a needle in a haystack. How can users get to your research? Your response may be, by entering the title of the research.  But, unless a lecturer, supervisor, colleague, or perhaps a reference list points them to your research, the user does not know it exists. A search of the literature is necessary to yield results.  You want your published research to show up whenever and wherever users search online.  They should be able to stumble upon your research in regardless of its format: audio, video, podcast, script, review, full text, abstract, citation, document, proceedings and depending on their information need.

This is where keywords come in.  Keywords of course are the terms you assign to your publication to facilitate retrievability. You should consider three major factors in assigning keywords to your research (based on your academic discipline) since the process of visibility advertising/marketing begins there.  These three factors are: 1) Relevance: How well is your research represented in the term you choose?  2) Search Volume:  Choose terms that do not yield an extremely high volume of hits or your work would be lost.  Conversely, do not use terms that are rarely used or your work would not be found.  Pay attention to how many times that particular keyword you wish to use is searched for a particular period. 3) User Intent: Try to think like the user in assigning terms.  What answers or resource may they be looking for?

For additional information on finding information sources, you may check my library guide at: https://libguides.uwi.edu/simple-search-strategies

3. Considerations for choosing technological tools

The first question you should consider in choosing technologies to advertise research is who is the intended audience?  Audiences may include researchers, scholars, students, practitioners, leaders, policy makers, or other communities.  Secondly, you need to identify where these audiences are located.  You then need to match technologies to your audience.  Which technologies will channel them or allow them access to your work?  The format in which your information is packaged will also determine the best-fit technological tool.  Is the format image, audio, video, data set or other?

4. What are some technological tools available to you for communicating your research?

The word technologies in my sub-heading refers to media and networking platforms.   Two networking tools are specifically available to researchers of The UWI.  These tools are UWISpace and UWIScholar.  UWISpace is the institutional repository of The UWI.  Research can be packaged in multiple formats such as audio, video, images, texts and even datasets.  The reach of UWISpace is international.   UWIScholar is a centralised, searchable experts and research networking database of biodata and other information such as research interests, research activity, public service, consultancies, education and training, teaching activities, awards, grants & funding and social media profile.

Another networking platform for global researchers to connect, collaborate and share research topics based on similarity of interest is ResearchGate.

As a researcher, you may harness the power of social media to increase your reach.  Utilise relevant hashtags to channel your research.  Talk about your paper to provide awareness.  Utilise the analytics to gauge your reach. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube are just a few of the large popular platforms that you may utilise to connect with both the public and scholarly community. Remember, as I mentioned earlier, the format in which your research is packaged should determine the social media platform you select for publicising your research.

Blogs are also useful for promoting your research.  You may share select portions, features or excerpts of your work that you deem relevant.  Additionally, do not forget to provide a link to where your work is located.

Unbelievably, you can also use your email signature as a means of promoting your research! Advertise select research by tagging it at the end of your email! Just add a link to your latest or featured publication to your signature.

I have shared with you the reasons why you should communicate your research, considerations in choosing technologies, factors to consider in assigning keywords to your research, and technologies (Social media and networking platforms) that you can utilise to communicate your research. I now encourage you to promote/market/communicate or, as stated in the title, engage in ART – Advertise your Research with Technologies. This will allow for visibility, discoverability and retrievability of your research!

 

Petronetta (Petra) Pierre-Robertson is the Documentalist at the School of Education, The UWI, St. Augustine. She is also the Managing Editor for the peer-reviewed journal of the school.  Petra’s current research interests are: User Training, Online Information Retrieval, Domestic Violence and Literature as Therapy.