Professor Ian Richards University of South Australia

Journals are ‘vehicles of scholarly communication where the latest thinking and research can be disseminated, discussed and reviewed, to and by others in the same field’ (Bence and Oppenheim, 2004: 63)

Journals are the primary means of:  Communicating findings to others working in the same field.  Engaging in focused theoretical discussion.  Defining directions in future research  Determining what work will be cited in future publication.

Note that none of the following is on the list:  Helping you impress your supervisor, colleagues or peers.  Advancing your career.  Publicising your own work.  Helping you with your next promotion application. The aims of journal publishing are much wider than individual careers.

Individual authors are located between:  a system of knowledge production  a system of peer review  a range of resource, time, career and institutional pressures. All authors face pressures of time and resources, intense competition, pressure to publish in the “top” journals.

Gatekeepers/enablers who suffer from:  Limited time and resources.  Increasing number of submissions.  Pressure from authors and publishers for speedy responses.  Reviewer issues - reviewer workloads/ quality/ consistency.  Increasing demands for transparency (eg plagiarism/fraud).  Institutional constraints.

 Follow journal guidelines regarding style and referencing.  Be well-written - clear; logical; internal coherence.  Be analytical rather than descriptive.  Use an appropriate methodology.  Present conclusions which follow logically on from the rest of the paper.

To survive the reviewing process, your paper needs to:  Demonstrate a thorough knowledge of the field.  Address current issues in the field.  Present new knowledge.  Bring new insights to current debates.

 Relevance to discipline  Relevance to journal readership  Originality  Research methodology  Data reporting  Writing  Strength of argument  Critical and/or analytic insight

Publishing in Australia has been complicated by the ERA rankings. Forget about these!  What disciplinary territory does it cover?  Who is the journal’s target audience?  Advice from senior colleagues.  Who is the editor? Who is on the editorial board?  How “international” is the journal?  Prestige factor/rejection rate.

 Papers which have been submitted to more than one publication at the same time.  Plagiarised content.  Papers which exceed the specified word limit.  Papers with content which has clearly been lifted from a thesis and not amended/adapted.  Material which has been poorly proof-read.

Authorship must be based on substantial contributions in a combination of:  conception and design of the project,  analysis and interpretation of research data,  drafting significant parts of the work or  critically revising it so as to contribute to the interpretation. Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research

 Being head of department, holding other positions of authority, or personal friendship with the authors.  Providing a technical contribution but no other intellectual input to the project or publication.  Providing routine assistance in some aspects of the project, the acquisition of funding or general supervision of the research team.  Providing data that has already been published or materials obtained from third parties, but with no other intellectual input. Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research

 “Researchers must ensure that all those who have contributed to the research, facilities or materials are properly acknowledged, such as research assistants and technical writers.” Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research

 “Collaborating researchers should agree on authorship of a publication at an early stage in the research project and should review their decisions periodically.” (ACRCR)  Joint authors – you are expected to work out beforehand the order of names.  UniSA - Statement of Authorship and Location of Data form.

 Analyse content of recent issues of the target journal.  Use themed issues to your advantage.  Ask someone else to read your paper through carefully before submitting it.  Don’t take it personally if your paper is rejected.

 Don’t waste time with non-refereed publishing.  Don’t waste time with conference proceedings (humanities and social sciences).  Double or triple blind peer review is standard. (Remember - you might be asked to nominate potential reviewers).  Referees will be experienced academics in a relevant discipline. They should be:  anonymous  constructive  respond reasonably quickly

 Referee comments can be extremely useful.  Informs your teaching and research.  Gives you professional credibility.  Helps you become known in your field.  Essential for promotion.  It’s part of your job as an academic.