Our Current Managing Editor is Dr Anna Tarrant:

An introduction to me

Hello everyone,

I am delighted to announce that I am the new Managing Editor of phd2published! Just by way of introduction, here is a bit about me and my intentions for this role:

Anna 2011: Questions galore!

I am a human geographer by training and my thesis examined the social geographies of contemporary familial identities in a British context. I completed my PhD in July 2011 and have since realized my ambition to stay in academia. Currently I am a Senior Teaching Associate at Lancaster University, teaching a broad range of topics at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. This is a short term, 10 month post and I view it as my opportunity to fill in the gaps of my knowledge, to get established as an academic and to develop my networks. So how do I asked?

My first reaction: publishing! I have actually already published two peer-review articles while doing my PhD, so at first I assumed it would be a fairly easy job to turn my thesis into more papers or even a book. I have since realized however that building from these existing publications is a much more complicated matter, and I am now faced with many more questions than answers and much more anxiety than confidence.  How do I go about publishing again? How do I develop a publishing strategy? Should I write a book, or split my thesis into chapters? Am I good enough?

Any of these questions sounding familiar?

Finding some solutions…

I found PhD2Published in a desperate bid to find some answers and was impressed by the range of relevant topics discussed, the integrity of the site and its personalised approach. Finding the site also happened to coincide with an opening for the Managing Editor role so I contacted Charlotte and here I am, excited at the prospect of meeting new people and sharing wisdom to find solutions for my various issues and problems.

My ultimate goal as the new Managing Editor is to find out more about the process of preparing for academic publishing, to research the various steps and decisions I need to make on the journey to publishing from my thesis but most importantly, to engage in some peer-to-peer sharing. I aim to do this by building upon the fantastic work of Sarah-Louise Quinnell and Charlotte Frost as well as hunting for some great hints and tips from published academics and academic publishing houses. I hope that this will be a great support, not only for my own work, but everyone out there who is in a similar position to me and just needs a bit of advice for confidence building, encouragement and some occasional food for thought.

Like Sarah-Louise, my interests are fairly interdisciplinary so I would love to hear from people from all fields, from geographers to sociologists, gerontologists to natural scientists. Variety is the spice of life as they say, and regardless of academic interests, we must all face the publishing mine field if we want to progress. I also want to provide a space that you can all shape and mould, in order to help as many people as possible. Send me comments, tell me what you want me to find out, give me any feedback you have and together we can continue to make this site as useful as it can be.

I’ll be back very soon with some more blog posts and comments but right now, I’m off for a much needed cuppa…

Anna x

Previous Managing Editors:

Dr. Sarah-Louise Quinnell (January – September 2011)

Here’s how she described herself:

I am a social scientist, more specifically a Development Geographer, whose work focuses on the international politics of the environment and development.

I gained my PhD from the Geography Department at King’s College London in 2010. My research, funded through an ESRC/NERC collaborative studentship, examined the role of capacity-development initiatives in the implementation of multi-lateral environmental agreements, for a plain English summary of my research look here.

It was during my doctoral research that I began to consider how the internet and social media could be used in the research process. I had noticed that a number of international organisations had used interactive message-boards and forums as a means of communicating with interested stakeholders. With that in mind I developed my own virtual research environment which included a web site which was used to both collect data as well as a tool for promoting me and my own research. The site ran for 2 years and was invaluable to a time and cash strapped post-graduate researcher. The relative newness of this area of research saw me present on the use of social media for researchers and researcher development at the Royal Geographical Society Annual Conference in London in 2007.

Since completing my PhD I am now focusing on publishing the results of my thesis, developing post-doc ideas and following up my work on social media and the research process through the development of online and interactive tutorials for PhD and post-doc researchers interested in using social media in their research which are being delivered through the King’s College London Researcher Development Programme. You can find out more about my interests in social media on my website & in this short interview I did with Tristram Hooley.

When not working I can be found on the dance floor where I am training to become a Ballroom and Latin American dance teacher. I can also be found on twitter discussing everything from geo-politics to fake tan!

Why am I here …

I took over the Editorship of PhD2Published in January 2011 and I am looking to both build on and expand the issues and information previously highlighted on the site through my own publishing journey. I am looking to secure an academic position and publications; along with successful grant applications and conference presentations are key components to securing that position. As such I am looking to engage with all these issues during my Editorship of PhD2Published. I don’t come here as an expert, rather I approach my Editorship as an early career researcher with a lot of questions looking to find the answers, surely if I don’t know then other people won’t know either? So as I set out on my journey I hope by asking these questions, admitting what I don’t know and what I would like to know that I can generate content useful to all, irrespective of discipline.

The academic world is changing we are now constantly being ranked and graded on performance and ‘impact’ how does this change the way scholars view publishing or the communication of their research? Can we still publish for pleasure or for the advancement of knowledge or are we in a ‘publish or perish culture’ where the issue of publishing has become inextricably linked to career development strategies where publishing the ‘right’ paper / book etc in the ‘right’ journal or with the ‘right’ publisher become the most important? Who decides what is ‘right’ is it us as researchers or is it the establishment that many of us look to become part of? How is social media changing the way we present our work and what impact will the e-age having on publishing and academia in general? As I document my publishing journey on this site I hope to engage with many of these questions, hopefully providing answers, but at the very least stimulating debate.

Journals still represent the bulk of published academic material. In the 2008 RAE Journal submissions for the Geography and Environmental Studies sub-panel represented nearly 90% of the total submissions and as such this is where I start my journey. My examiners emphasised the need for me to be published in ‘good’ journals but what is a good journal, how do I choose where to be published and what does that mean for both the presentation of my work and me as an academic? Over the next few months I will chart my progress towards getting my first few papers published as well as providing advice from more established academics on paper writing and publication, dealing with revisions and rejection etc.

My aim is to continue to develop this site and maintain its dynamic, user driven nature thus I am looking forward to hearing from those of you using the site in order to maintain its relevance.

You can now read Sarah-Louise’s final post to find out about everything she achieved while editing this resource!