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SLICING AND DICING YOUR PHD FOR PUBLICATION

2012 ANZAM MID-YEAR DOCTORAL WORKSHOP

Professor Gael McDonald

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Session Outline

• Why Research and Publish?• What is your Research Totem?• Generating Topics to Maximize Output• Generating Outputs from Your PhD• Journal Selection

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Questions

1. Create a list of the current hurdles you are experiencing regarding generating research outputs.

2. What do you perceive as the personal benefits to undertaking research and writing for publications?

3. How would you describe your current research and publication status, on a Scale of 1 to 6, with 1 being just starting and 6 being fully active with international recognition?

4. What, in your mind, is the relationship between research, publications and teaching?

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Why research?

Benefits to you:

Allows you to develop and refresh your teaching Allows you to pursue an academic interest or solve

an interesting problem Satisfies a need to investigate an issue and to add to

the knowledge base Enhances career opportunities/promotion

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What is your Research Totem(s)

• Increasing your research base is first about finding your research totem(s)

• You only need one or two maximum• Reflect on your prior research and current interests• What are you known for, or would like to be known for• Avoid fragmentation

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Increasing Your Publication Output

• Increasing your publication output is not necessarily about the number of research projects.

• It is about the number of topics that you can write on• And getting papers accepted

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Topic Generation

• Have you developed guidelines based on your experience that others would find useful?

• Did you give a speech/lecture recently which could be a good article?

• Do you have a comment or observation on current trends in your area of interest?

• Have you tried something out and found that it didn’t work?

• Are you wrestling with a problem or issue that doesn’t have a clear solution?

If the answer is yes, or even maybe, you’ve got somewhere to start.

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Topic Generation (cont’d)• Research Project – old and new• Current event -why• Opinion commentary/Theory• Summation of current/future practice/evolution• How to - the application of• List generation - 10 ways...• Do’s and don’ts • Local perspective• Spin-offs

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Topic Generation (cont’d)• Classroom material/pedagogy• Combining research projects• Literature review• Research model• Alternative statistical treatment• Research notes• Failures• Unresolved problems

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Questions

• Reflect on the discussion on topic generation and propose 3 potential paper titles

• Share these with the person next to you• Identify which one or two topics/titles are of most

interest to you

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• Publishing can be distracting• A thesis tells a more detailed, in-depth story• Articles require a different style of writing• Research for a thesis is, by its very nature, a work in

progress• Authorship and intellectual property issues tricky

Publishing From Your PH.D Thesis

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Advantages

• The dissemination and sharing of ideas• Provides the opportunity to have your work externally

critiqued• Excellent indication to future examiners that your work

has already been quality assured• A great way to increase your networks• Can be a growth opportunity propelling you into an

activity that is new• Undoubtedly enhances your résumé• A direct impact on promotion• That information deserves to get out • Peer review

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What could you publish?

Key issues in the field:

• The literature review• Conceptual model building• Research methodological issues• Original research instruments• Key research results• Ancillary topics• Research applications• Research mistakes• Sub-issues• Unique contribution

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Journal Selection

Choose your location(s) before writing

• A few publishers, such as MCB University Press, Blackwell’s, Elsevier and Sage, can help in the first instance by supplying an up-to-date portfolio of their journals (MCB has more than 130 publications)

• The ERA list is however your best friend

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Tailor to Your Location

• Read the Notes for Contributors and ask the editor for a positioning statement, or details on editorial objectives and quality criteria. Leaf through some back issues of the journal to get a feel for its style and content

• Have a back up location(s)