Title: From Manuscript to Article: Publishing Educational Technology Research
Abstract: The publishing process is often challenging for new educational technology scholars. This article provides insights into the publication process to help them understand and to increase the chances that their work will be accepted for publication in high-quality peer-reviewed journals. Suggestions for developing a program of research, a description of the peer-review process, a table of potential publication outlets, and examples of correspondence with editors are included to help demystify the process. Publishing one’s research in blind peer-reviewed (or peer-refereed) academic journals is often an intimidating task for new educational technology scholars. Many emerging scholars have had limited opportunities to write for a professional audience during their graduate careers, and the experiences they have had may not transfer to the new setting. Proposals submitted for conference presentations are typically brief, receive little feedback for revision, and are not held to journal publication standards. Actual papers presented at conferences are typically published in proceedings or as an ERIC document without additional review or editing. Further, the traditional five-chapter thesis or dissertation tends to be unsuitable for publication—those who do try to publish it as a journal article often find themselves rewriting the entire manuscript. Thus, few educational scholars fully understand the blind peer-reviewed publication process when they enter the profession. Becoming a proficient academic scholar, however, is a developmental process. Participating in the knowledge sharing process in an educational community can be an academic’s most important and rewarding work. Publication is the mechanism that advances the field and is an immediate concern for assistant professors in the “publish or perish” world of the academy. There are many options available for publishing one’s work, including revie wed and nonreviewed research, theoretical, or practice-based outlets, as well as book chapters and monographs. However, publishing in blind peerreviewed journal articles tends to be viewed as most desirable for those judging work for promotion decisions. The purpose of this article is to help demystify blind peer-reviewed Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 4(2) 91 publication by providing insights that will help newcomers participate successfully in the process. Conceptualizing a Program of Research Publishing an article in a blind peer-refereed jo urnal begins well before you package up the manuscript and send it off to an editor. Two key elements in the publishing process are identifying a timely and important topic and grounding the work in an appropriate literature base. Considering the current issues in the field and developing interesting and insightful ways to address them allows you to plan a program of research strategically —a systematic series of research projects around a topic or issue. Engaging in programmatic research can further your career in several ways. Focusing in an area allows you to become expert in a body of literature and gain insights into the complexities of a field of study. Developing a program of research allows you to become intimately familiar with the relevant discussions in the field that can be used to guide your work. Further, familiarity with a focused area of literature allows you to be efficient, in that developing expertise in an area means you know the major findings, issues, and conclusions in the literature that provide the conceptual framework for all of the publications in your program of research. Sustaining a program of research can support the development of coherence and sophistication in your writing as you integrate findings from earlier research into the conceptualization and design of new projects. Selecting an Appropriate Outlet Developing a well-conceptualized program of research can be accomplished only by spending considerable time reading and reflecting on relevant literature. Reading and reflecting on the literature provides an additional benefit for savvy researchers in that it provides an excellent opportunity to assess the various characteristics of potential outlets for their work. Some blind peer-reviewed journals primarily publish empirical research articles, while others provide an outlet for more conceptual, theoretical, or descriptive articles. Becoming familiar with the various journals in the field enables you to identify appropriate outlets early in the research process and design and d evelop your articles to fit. A good strategy is to target a specific journal as your first choice but to also have one or two preferred journals as backup choices in case your manuscript is not accepted in your primary journal. When selecting preferred journals, choose ones that have a similar focus, audience, structure, and reference style to your primary journal. Doing so allows a manuscript to be easily revised and submitted to preferred journals if necessary. A list of journals that publish educational technology research with editor contact information, general information, and author guidelines are included in Table 1 . In addition to the nature of the articles published in a journal, another important consideration in choosing an appropriate outlet is acceptance rate. A recent report indicated that three fourths of the journals surveyed accepted more than 10% of the unsolicited manuscripts received, and over half accepted at least 30%, with some acceptance rates as high as 60% (Henson, 2001). The same data indicated that chance of acceptance improved dramatically when authors were advised to revise and resubmit their work. Average initial acceptance was 32.8%, but increased to 78.1% for reevised and resubmitted manuscripts. So look into acceptance rates and choose a journal that gives you a reasonable chance of being accepted, and if you are invited to resubmit, it is well worth the effort to address the reviewers’ and editors’ concerns and do so. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 4(2) 92 Strategic Publication There are several important considerations to which authors must attend when writing for publication. At one level it seems simple to develop and conduct a study, then produce a manuscript. However, doing this in a thoughtful and systematic manner greatly increases the chances of developing a body of work in blind peer-reviewed journals.
Publication Year: 2004
Publication Date: 2004-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 9
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