International publications in Sociology: what can we do better

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International publications in Sociology what
can we do (better)? Jaak Billiet CeSO Central
Coordination of ESS PhD seminar Dec. 1 - 2008

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outline

• Introduction the background
• Why are international publications
  important?Different perspectives criteria for
  assessment
• How can you do it? some ideas on- advantage of
  co-publications (but)- choice of a journal-
  learning from rejection by (high rated)
  journals- elapsed time between finishing and
  accepted/published paper - evolution during PhD
  career- follow training academic publishing

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1. introduction

• Experience from many research assessments (FWO,
  research Netherlands, research schools, BOF
  KULeuven, ESF) and selection committees for
  academic positions from 1990 until now last
  years many reviews for number of journals
• International publications are always a crucial
  factor in the assessments
• the criteria are different according to
  assessment and selection committees this has
  implications for decisions by PhD student (how do
  we know specific criteria?)
• For some general principles see Billiet et
  al(2005). Bibliometrie in de humane
  wetenschappen, Vlaamse Koninklijke Academie van
  België voor Wetenschappen en Kunsten, Brussel, 38
  pp.

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2. Why I.P. important?

• we can imagine many reasons, but most simple
  your work is mainly judged by your
  publicationsand these are nowadays most of the
  timein English, external peer reviewed, in
  (real) international academic journals (ISI?) or
  in book volumes of prominent (what is this)
  scientific publishers or books (condition)
• Never counted conference proceedings that are
  not published (without editor, no pages), books
  printed by yourself, internal external reports,
  publications of own group (unless very prominent
  institute) in sum all what is published
  without external academic peer review.

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Several perspectives

• Count publications in own language? Depends
  (external peer reviewed, academic, etc) but this
  seminar is on international
• How important for YOU, yourself?It
  dependscriteria have different weights depending
  whether you plan a BOF post-doc, FWO post-doc,
  other universitiesor
• continued research position inside or outside
  university
• Minimal at least one proof of peer reviewed
  international publication as a first author
  (often much stricter criteria because of
  concurrence)

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Several perspectives

• How important for the research teampublications
  of research team in view of continued research
  fundingyou contribute to the reputation of the
  research team
• How they do it in the best sociology teams in the
  Netherlands?About 4 published or accepted
  international pubs in high rated jnrls at moment
  of PhD defense (eg. ASR, AmJS, ESR), first
  author but rule PhD thesis is collection of
  articles in UU, UG, UvT, VU, Radboud Different
  norms in qualitative sociology (UvA) still
  monographs Supervisors lead students through
  first publications from second year on, in later
  years still co-author but students are then first
  authors and take initiative

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3. How can you do it?

• Cooperation work together, impossible alone, but
  with fair division of orther of author assumes
  that you plan with supervisor and team members
  (or others) several publications at a time (7
  intern. journal articles published in 2007/2008
  are written with 9 different co-authors, first
  author 2 x PhD stud, 2 x other)

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How can you do it?

• 2. Choice of a journal each time before writing
  final text a discussion about the journal, more
  alternatives choose highest rated journal but
  be realistic why? You learn most from the
  reviewers reports in view of resubmission or even
  rejection

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How can you do it?

• 3. At long term choice for a high rated journal
  with risk of serious corrections and new
  submission is (mostly) preferable over easy
  publishing in low rated journal. Why? You can
  learn a lot from the comments of experts in the
  field who reviewed your paper,go down later to
  lower rated journal rated? At base of impact
  factors

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How can you do it?

• Elapsed time between sending a paper and final
  decision/publication can be very long.(e.g.
  paper in Journal of Social Issues in 2008 was
  sent in 2005 36 months paper in ESR in 2008
  was more than 24 months, paper in Sociological
  Methods Research in 2008 was in less than 5
  months however, was first sent in 2006 but was
  lost)
• Lesson learned check always whether editor has
  received the copy!!!
• Situation is improved because of internet
  advanced access

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How can you do it?

• 5. Evolution during PhD careerpublishing in
  international peer reviewed journalsstart as
  co-author of journal articles or book chapters
  with supervisor in 3th-4th year and learn from
  experience, in 4th-5th take initiative but still
  in cooperation
• Transform conference papers into pubs in
  journals or books
• problem at same time finishing PhD thesis
• note
• depending of plans and sub-discipline do not
  forget to publish for own society in Dutch

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How can you do it?

• 6. Follow training in academic publishingsome
  papers that I receive for publication are ofter
  very badly written, not very well structured, too
  many issuesalways (in empirical papers)
• - 1 or at least couple of questions you will
  solve in the paper
• - short state of the art theoretical part
• - session about the data and measurements
• - results session
• - conclusion and discussion