Academic publishing: A Guide for PhD Student

Academic publishing: A Guide for PhD Students

Thursday 16/05 10:30-12:00h

Plenary Hall

Needs Analysis

Publishing is in important (if not the most important) part of an academic’s job but it is quite a complex process which can be different every time. In other words, it is not something you can just do in between other meetings or other work. The mere fact that each publisher (i.e. journal, conference, book) has its own submission guidelines and review process, or that each journal has its own scope and impact factors that you need to be aware of, makes publishing almost a skill in itself. Knowing what is involved will help avoid missing deadlines, as well as prevent feelings of frustration and discouragement and at the same time it will increase your chances of successfully publishing your work.

Learning Objectives

The overall learning objective is to equip participants with enough knowledge and skills to handle the publishing process stress free. After the course, participant PhD students will:

• Understand the academic publishing landscape
• Know how to prepare a manuscript
• Be able to navigate the submission process
• Becoming familiar with the review process of scientific outlets
• Know how to deal with revisions and rejections

Specifically featured:

• How to select a suitable journal for your work
• Significance of peer review
• Author guidelines
• Tips for preparing your manuscript
• Submission requirements
• Cover letters
• Reviewing a manuscript
• Editorial board meeting
• How to revise your manuscript
• Responding to reviewer comments
• Tips for handling rejection

Pre-activities

Prepare a review for one manuscript submitted to a scientific journal based on a provided review criteria form; or choose a manuscript given by the instructors. Submit your review a week before the start of the summer school.

Session Description

The sessions will be very active with short presentations in between to introduce new topics

Part 1

1. Introduction: getting to know the participants and overview of the workshop
2. Short presentation about the academic publishing landscape
3. Individual exercise: recognizing quality journals
4. Short presentation about preparing your manuscript
5. Collaborative exercise: author guidelines
6. Short presentation about navigating the submission process
7. Exercise: writing a strong cover letter
8. Plenary sharing of do’s and don’ts when writing cover letters
9. Wrap up/look ahead to workshop part 2.

Part 2

1. Information about the review process
2. Small group exercise: simulation of an editorial board meeting
3. Per group, share and discuss editorial decisions with the whole group
4. Short presentation about revisions and rejections
5. Exercise: Break out groups to discuss strategies for dealing with rejection
6. Reporting back to the whole group/share strategies
7. Wrap up