Call for Papers: Becoming a Productive Publishing Scholar
A recurring theme in the Exchanges Discourse podcast and in the workshops the journal has hosted in recent years, are questions around the effective steps scholars can take towards becoming more productive publishing scholars. Books and articles remain the lingua franca of our disciplinary domains, with career and professional esteem enmeshed in their production. New and early career scholars, like many who publish with and read Exchanges, keenly desire to establish themselves in their disciplinary field. Yet they often feel they face a Sisyphean task in publishing sufficiently, or via their desired channels or even identifying where their focus should be in terms of their written output. That they are also expected to be achieving a myriad of other ‘career critical’ goals alongside publishing – from gaining secure employment, conducting research, obtaining income and establishing impact generation activities – creates further tensions and problematics.
Nevertheless, establishing and maintaining an academic careers remains – arguably – intrinsically linked with embracing a seemingly inescapable ‘publication imperative’.
However, in the discussions around this theme within Exchanges’ workshops a recurrent message has been the lack of any singular route to achieving publication success. Moreover, alternative digital and social dissemination routes mean formal publishing is no longer the only route through which recognition for ideas, thinking and research can be established. Despite this, seemingly much of every academic’s career trajectory, personal worth and disciplinary status remains enmeshed in a seemingly inescapable tango with research publication.
Without ‘one true way’ to approach writing, publishing and communicating research: how then does an any researcher set about becoming an effective publishing scholar, while balancing a successful work/life existence?
Submission Invitation
Therefore, for the Exchanges issue to be published October 2024, we invite submissions of papers around the theme of becoming a productive publishing scholar. Topics for the issue could include but are not limited to:
- Balancing pragmatism and production with healthy self-care
- Creating a greater strategic approach publication outputs
- Embracing interdisciplinary audiences, research or practices
- Emerging scholarly communication and alternatives to ‘traditional’ publication routes or platforms
- Personal reflections, insights or advice on achieving effective publishing techniques
- Use, abuse or opportunity from emerging digital and AI tools to enhance publication effectiveness
Manuscripts may be submitted in any of our papers formats, and should include a note to the editor at submission that they are to be considered for this particular call. Authors should also include a note to the editor as part of their submission that they are responding to this call.
Deadline
The closing date for submissions varies by manuscript format:
- Peer-reviewed papers or review articles Friday 1st March 2024
- Critical reflections, Conversations or Book Reviews Friday 28th June 2024
Manuscripts should be submitted via our online submission portal on or before the above dates.
As with all calls, the Editor-in-Chief (exchangesjournal@warwick.ac.uk) welcomes but does not require conversations with authors ahead of submission. For more online and style guidance see our submission pages.
