Writing for Publication During and From a Doctorate

Case Studies of the Experiences of Colleagues from Manchester and Beyond

(December, 2020)

Introduction

We work in an era oftern characterised by the ‘publish or perish’ mantra. Early career researchers can feel under pressure to publish quickly so as to gain a foot on the academic ladder. In pursuit of professional advancement, it seems that publication matter, the earlier the btter with outputs increasingly expected during as well as from/after the doctorate.

In order to better address the pressure to publish (from institutional discourses of researcher development, dominant research cultures, peers, ‘imposter syndrome’ and etc.) and maximize the sense of fulfilment, achievement, and personal and professional development through such writing,the opportunities for and complexities of publishing during and rom/after a doctorate whether writing individually or co-authoring was discussed.

The following questions became the overarching theme throughout the workshop with the help of a set of case studies.

[1] How can we (individually and collectively, personally and institutionally) maximise positive outcomes and minimise negative possibilities?

[2] What can we learn from the case studies (of other researchers) about the publishing during and from a doctorate?

[3] Can we begin to list some of the things to be alert for and to guard against? But also can we list some of things to encourage and be encouraged by, and to foster in our doctoral / early career research communities?

[4] Can we begin to articulate a set of ‘guiding principles’ or ‘pointers’ or ‘advice’? And might such insights be focused differently for doctoral researchers and for their supervisors?

Main Activities

7 case studies from Manchester alumni (including Sutraphorn Tantiniranat, Susan Dawson, Nahielly Palacios, Zhuomin Huang,and Achilleas Kostoulas) and researchers from other universities (including Eva Polymenakou and Mira Bekar) were shared as resource. They reflected on their publication journey during and after PhD study in a written format and acted as co-facilitators in each breakout room (2 rounds of breakout rooms in this session with 3 rooms in each round ) to gather insights based on the preassigned cases with the use of Focusing Prompts. Thoughts were captured on Padlet and shared by spokeperson from each group in the main room after discussion. 

What was discussed in this workshop is not an end product itself, instead, it will potentially introduce and bring new perspectives to “What’s next” question.

Feedback from participants