Tag: publishing

#AcWri, #phdchat, LPQ

The @LPQuarterly Workshop No. 1 – HOW TO: Effectively Review, Submit & Publish Your Academic Manuscript

Laura Pasquini

To support our graduate students and junior scholars at UNT, with their academic writing development, the Learning and Performance Quarterly hosted its first workshop this past Friday, March 1st.

The purpose of this session was to introduce graduate students to the Learning and Performance Quarterly journal, and engage in a discussion about scholarly peer-review, academic editing, and the publication process. Dr. Kim Nimon & Dr. Jeff Allen shared their experiences and thoughts on the publication process, and what it takes to submit an academic manuscript.

We discussed the steps from submission preparation, through correspondence, and all the way to publication, including:

  • Understanding Academic Journal Types: A, B, & C Level
  • Considering the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) for journal levels
  • Using Google Scholar Citations & being critical with Google Scholar
  • Filtering with the UNT Libraries Search – Summon
  • Researching Academic Journals: Cabell’s Directory (hard copy in library)
  • Scholarly Publication Process – how it helps your academic writing improve
  • Effective Peer Reviewing – comments, feedback & effective suggestions
  • Expectations & Considerations – the typical process is 9-12 months
  • Developing Publishing Relationships – between reviewers & editors AND the editor & author; it’s a human process
  • Attending Conference Sessions with the Editor – bring your manuscript, learn if they need papers, build a rapport
  • key rejection reasons – format, grammar, APA, and theoretical frameworks
  • How to get involved in the academic reviewing & writing process
  • Using a plagiarism checker to review your manuscript before submission
  • Communication with the editor & being timely with your peer reviews

During the session Dr. Nimon shared her own publishing experiences, provided the group with  peer-reviewing and editor correspondence, and talked about what she looks for in academic manuscripts as an editor. 

Although many asked to record the workshop; I decided not to as the open discussion, and Q & A format was really best served in person, and I think the conversation was more candid without the recording.  You can thank the LPQ Assistant Editor, Tekeisha, for compiling notes from this session – here is the summary of what we discussed:

Besides encouraging our attendees to write, we also placed value in joining the peer-review and editing process. We suggested to sign up to review articles for the LP Quarterly AND other journals in their field. Being a peer-reviewer helps junior scholars gain experience in the publishing process, build a rapport with editors, learn about acceptable journal submissions, and hone their own academic writing craft. I suggested reading Rocco and Hatcher’s (2011) book, specifically “Chapter 2 – Publishing in Peer-Reviewed and Non Refereed Journals” to get their feet wet with starting the academic submission process, preparing a manuscript, deciding where to publish, and how to best work with editors.

Although I have seen this session before – I know that I left the workshop with some great takeaways from Dr. Nimon, and helpful ideas shared by scholars who have been through the full academic writing experience from submission to publication. A huge thanks to Dr. Nimon for her time and sharing, Dr. Allen for donating the book giveaways (who doesn’t LOVE winning the Rocco & Hatcher text or APA 6th edition book?), and, most importantly, thank you to those of you who joined us on a Friday night. I appreciate it. 

In our efforts to be more developmental, the Leaning and Performance Quarterly would like to offer more in-person and online workshops on researching, writing, editing, reviewing, and publishing. It was great to see representation from other departments and disciplines across campus the other evening. We welcome others to join us for future LPQ Workshops as we consider other topics, including:

  • Managing Your Writing Projects
  • Forming Agraphia (Writing) Groups
  • Writing Literature Reviews
  • Drafting Conceptual Articles
  • Secondary Data Analysis

If you have any topic suggestions or would be interested in participating – let me know. Feel free to write suggestions in the comments OR send a message to the LPQ Editors: LPQuarterly [at] gmail [dot] com.

FYI: The NEXT Call for Submissions is on Monday, March 11th at 11:59 pm CDT. Do you have your academic manuscript ready? Submit TODAY!

Reference:

Rocco, T.S. & Hatcher, T. (2011). The handbook of scholarly writing and publishing. San Francisco: Wiley/Jossey-Bass.

#phdchat, PhD, Professional Development

Have Conferences, Will Travel

Laura Pasquini

Apparently when it rains, it pours – for conference proposal acceptances, that is. Since this semester is light on course work, heavy on dissertation proposal research, and I have a amazingly supportive supervisor/department, I will be fortunate enough to be able to attend a few conferences this term.

Laura Pasquini Where is Shee

Here is the rundown for my tentative CONFERENCE travel schedule:

Dalton Institute 2013 http://studentvalues.fsu.edu/2013-Dalton-Institute
Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL  January 30-February 2nd   Follow: #dalton13 Invited Keynote: Student Development 2.0: Optimizing Social Media to Connect Your Campus

AHRD Conference http://www.ahrd.org/ 
Washington, DC   Feb 13-17, 2013
Abstract paper: “A Review of Theoretical Frameworks Explaining Formal Mentoring Relationships”; Thanks to my co-author Mariya Gavrilova-Aguilar who will be presenting

iConference 2013  http://www.iconference.ischools.org/iConference13/2013index/
@iSchools & UNT Host, Fort Worth, TX   February 12-15, 2013  Follow:#iconf13   Our #UNT Social Media Expo team (Andrew Miller, Leila Mills, Mark Evans & I) qualified for the grant from Microsoft Research FUSE Labs on our paper: “Towards a Methodology of Virtually Augmenting a Knowledge Sharing Community of Practice: A Case Study of the Local Food System of Denton, Texas”

South by Southwest (SXSW) Education Conference & Festival http://sxswedu.com/
Panel Discussion: Social Media in Higher Ed – where are we going? with @Bcroke, @tjoosten, & @bradpopiolek
Austin, TX  March 4-7, 2013  Follow: #sxswEDU

 

Emerging Technologies for Online Learning – Sloan C http://sloanconsortium.org/conference/2013/et4online/welcome
Las Vegas, NV   April 9-11, 2013   Follow: #et4online                               @et4online Conference Planning committee; graduate student instigator

 

Futures of Academic Publishing: UNT’s 4th Symposium on Open Access https://openaccess.unt.edu/symposium/2013

May 30-31, 2013   Dallas, TX


NACADA 2013 International Conference http://www.nacada.ksu.edu/Events-Programs/Events/International-Conference.aspx
Maastricht, Netherlands   June 5-7, 2013
Workshop: Communication 2.0 Plans: Effectively Engaging Students Online
*Possible poster and panel session involving the #AdvTech survey and Social Media in Higher Education research.*

 

10th Annual Sloan Consortium – Blended Learning Conference & Workshop http://sloanconsortium.org/conference/2013/blended/welcome 

Milwaukee, WI    July 8-9, 2013

 

Invited Workshop: Supporting Blended Learner’s Need to Develop Social and Connected Skills Through Digital Pedagogy

Let me know if you will be attending, presenting, or frequenting any of the above conferences. I expect to meet up with the usual [professional/scholarly] suspects I collaborate with, and I look forward to new colleague connections and learning during this conference season.

#AcWri

#AcWriMo & Accountability to Write

Laura Pasquini

Continuing with my blog “catch up” from the Fall 2012 semester theme…

I thought I’d share my #AcWriMo statistics for the month of November. In conjunction with #NaNoWriMo and #DigiWriMo, there are an avid group of academic scholars and early career researchers who “checked in” virtually to post their #AcWri goals and daily progress in a shared Google document.

So I decided to join in for #acwrimo in November to tackle a few writing projects and goals I had to hit by the end of 2012. This digital check in helped me track what I was doing. My goal was at least 750 words per day, as I found the 750words tool useful and a reasonable daily goal. In the end, my total number of words for the month of November 2012 = 60, 088 words!

I’m not sure if anyone really paid attention to what I was updating in the shared Google Excel doc, but  using 750words.com and tracking my own word count in a public space did remind me that I was not alone in my #acwri and publishing goals. This #AcWriMo word count sharing helped me keep tabs on my progress, and I was able to focus my attention to small milestones I have had for the bigger writing tasks, i.e. grant research, conference paper proposals, manuscript submissions edits, etc.

If you’re impressed with my stats and you want to increase your word count these days, then perhaps  a digital #acwrimo accountability is for you! A growing number of scholars continue to share #acwri goals and word count writing objectives each month here: Academic Writing Accountability 2013 spreadsheet.  Forget New Years resolutions for #acwri intentions, and focus on some S.M.A.R.T. goals for your scholarly writing this year.

#AcWri, OpenAccess

SPARC Addendum & Author Rights for Publishing #OpenAccess

Laura Pasquini

As part of the international open access week last fall, I attended the #SPARC Addendums and Author Rights Workshop facilitated by Kris Helge from the UNT Libraries. As an author and editor for a journal, this session reminded me about the critical stakeholders and expectations for the scholarly publishing process and the need to consider my own author agreements before signing away my work. I am fortunate enough to work and study at an institution who supports Open Access,and #OpenAccess publications.

I am also excited that other academic journals (e.g. JALN) are joining the #OA movement; however there are a number of peer-reviewed, academic publications who hold traditional publisher agreements and copyright limitations close to their heart. If you are an academic, scholarly author, or early career researcher and you have NOT heard about SPARC … then this blog post is for you!

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After a brief review of copyrights and “traditional publishing agreements,” the workshop reminded me about of the importance of reading author agreements CAREFULLY and THOROUGHLY. A number of authors and early career researchers are just excited to get the chance to publish, that they rarely considering they are agreeing to transfer ALL OF THEIR COPYRIGHTS TO THE PUBLISHER. As researchers, we need to value our intellectual property and have a conversation with the publisher and inquire if any of the publishing agreement is negotiable.

Cue the SPARC Addendum…

SPARC. or the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, advocates for collaboration among authors, publishers, and libraries to correct imbalances found in the academic publishing system.

For a more balanced approach for author and publisher agreements you might want to consider the SPARC Addendum. This is a FREE, legal document that modifies the publisher’s agreement and allows authors to keep specific copyrights related to intellectual property (e.g. articles).  The author is able to retain their desired publishing rights with limited restrictions, and the publisher retains non-exclusive rights to publish and distribute your work. Overall, it allows authors to consider the access of their research, placement of writing into an electronic repository, and get the proper attribution when your work is utilized.

Want to know more about SPARC and #OpenAccess publishing resources? Check them out :

 

Reference:

Helge, K. (2012, October 24). SPARC Addendums and Author Rights Workshop. 2012 International Open Access Week @ UNT.

BreakDrink, CTCX

The @BreakDrink Campus Tech Connection #CTCX No. 70: Ginkgotree

Laura Pasquini
There are a number of conversations about challenges, changes and disruptions to higher education. Recently, Ginkgotree, the “Tumbler for textbooks,” got me thinking more about my curriculum content and sharing for my courses.
Teaching with a course pack just got a whole lot simpler with the new Ginkgotree app. http://www.ginkgotree.com/
Ginkgotree launched last week to allow instructors the ability to customize and develop their learning material using a wide variety of multimedia and curriculum content. On Monday’s (10/8/12) BreakDrink Campus Tech Connection (#CTCX) show, we were able to get a LIVE show and tell to preview the new instructional resource from Scott Hasbrouck (@scotthasbrouck), Ginkgotree CEO & “Everything Hacker.”
Here are a few of the interesting features that might appeal to educators in higher education (and possibly K-12 as well):
1. Teaching from your own curriculum – instructors have the ability and control of designing their own course curriculum that meets the needs of their learning objectives and materials. Through an easy licensing service provided by Ginkgotree, instructors have the ability to use content from all over the web including journal articles, YouTube videos, images, and other content on the web. One this course pack is developed, instructors have the ability to share a private link to students to start the learning.
2. Do you have an aged textbook to add?  Ginkgotree allows you to utilize some of your favorite text material, even the ones that have been highlighted, annotated and difficult to retrieve in the past by using high quality scanners to digitize your print text and share legally with learners.
3. Give your students the best opportunities to learn – Remember when you wondered if your students even bought or even opened the textbook for your course? SOON instructors will be able to track learner progress and engagement through course pack analytics. Ginkgotree also has the ability to offer public and private notes, ask questions, and tag your content with keywords to make it easier for both the instructor and student to navigate.
4. Reduce the cost for your learners – Students pay a flat rate of $10/month for unlimited courses, plus any applicable copyright fees (usually 15 cents per page) for their books. Rather than spending $250 per textbook, average costs of textbooks range from $45-55. For instructors it is “Free. Always. Forever.”
I think Ginkgotree has an interesting model and can definitely contribute to the evolution of higher education and learning as we know it. Perhaps it is time to consider how we compile and share learning content with our students. Go on. Sign up. Play around with it yourself. Let me know what you think.