RESEARCH PAPERS POST PHD

1. RESEARCH PAPERS POST PHD Wilhelm van Rensburg Research Associate Visual Identities in Art and Design (VIAD) Research Centre Faculty of Art, Design & Architecture (FADA) University of Johannesburg (UJ)

2. You can try publishing your entire PhD, but keep in mind that as a rule theses are written for a specific purpose – to demonstrate expertise and original research with respect to a defined topic – not as a commercial product. “The finished thesis is often staid, formulaic, repetitious and dull, although it serves its purpose.” Or you can generate a number of weighty articles from it.

3. RULE # 1: Don’t summarize, • Do not summarize your dissertation/thesis and submit it as an article to an academic journal: you will get a rejection letter in no time! • You need to think much more strategically about publishing from and about the research you have done for your dissertation • Publishing post-PhD is a career path you need to signpost for yourself

4. RULE # 2: Re-conceptualize • Package the information in your dissertation in a different way when generating articles from your research • Avoid ‘salami publishing’ (dividing up research into the thinnest possible slices (e.g. each of your findings) and submitting each slice as a separate article, thus generating a number of lightweight pieces)

5. RULE # 3: Do the spade work • Write the abstract first • Target the right journal • Submit to accredited journals only (?) • Write letters to the editor, engaging in a discussion about your ideas/submission • Identify the house style of a journal: read voraciously • Use the template for research article writing • Get a pedantic editor to look at your work

6. LISTS OF ACCREDITED JOURNALS • Department of Education (DoE) List • Institute of Science Index (ISI) List, owned by Thomson/Reuters, and providing services such as the SCI, SSCI, AHCI, EI, and the ESSCI • International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS) List • SA journals on International Lists

7. RULE # 4: Be neat and smart about your writing • Become a referee for journals and publications • Offer to edit a special issue or a book, or propose a new journal • Reference articles from the journal which you are targeting in your own article • Start a writing group and don’t shy away from criticism • Write daily and use different genres, even popular ones such as newspaper articles.

8. My regular writing • Academic articles/research papers • Newspaper/magazine articles/interviews • Exhibition reviews • Press releases • Catalogue essays for art exhibitions • Textbooks • Proposals • Educational supplements • Biographies

9. Rule # 5: Be proactive • Keep the submission line flowing (it can take between 6 and 24 months, or more, before an article is published – after acceptance!) • Apart from research articles, think about single authored books or editing books as well

10. Jill Adler & Yvonne Reed 2002 Challenges of Teacher Development, Van Schaik • Pam Christie 2008 Changing school in South Africa: Opening the Doors of Learning, Heinemann • BrahmFleisch 2008 Primary Education in Crisis: Why South African Schoolchildren underachieve in reading and mathematics, Juta • Sarah Gravett & Hester Geyser 2004 Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, Van Schaik

11. Keith Lewin, Michael Samuel & Yusuf Sayed 2002 Changing Patterns of Teacher Education in South Africa: Policy, Practice and Prospects • Wally Morris 2007 Learning To Teach In South Africa, HSRC Press • Nick Taylor, Johan Muller & Penny Vinjevold 2003 Getting Schools Working: research and Systemic School Reform in South Africa

12. ARTICLE # 1: Review article • Overview of the literature • Paul Temple 2008 Learning spaces in higher education: an under-researched topic. London Review of Education 6 (3), November 2008: 227-241 • Paul Temple 2007 Learning Spaces for the 21st Century: A Review of the Literature. The Higher Education Academy. • http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/ourwork/research/litreviews

13. ARTICLE # 2: Solutions to current problems in your field • Usually the Findings and the Discussion chapters of your thesis • Make it topical: Large Scale Testing/ National/International Benchmark Tests • Make it current: OBE is outdated!

14. ARTICLE # 3: Theory • To which theory do you subscribe? Write about the way theory has permeated your study. • Theories in your discipline/field of study? • Anfara & Mertz 2006 Theoretical Frameworks in Qualitative Research, Sage • Bettis & Mills 2006 Liminality and the study of a changing academic landscape (In: Anfara & Mertz)

15. READING LIST • Tony Bush 2011 Theories of Educational Leadership and Management • Lois Tyson 2011 Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide, Routledge • Philip Wexler 2009 Social Theory in Education, Peter Lang (Three models: Durkheim, Marx, Weber: Society, Economy, Culture)

16. ARTICLE # 4: Methodology article • Amplify the methodology chapter of your thesis • Target journals that specialize in methodology, e.g. Qualitative Inquiry, Qualitative Research, Narrative Inquiry, Discourse Analysis • Norman Denzin 2008 The new paradigm dialogs and qualitative inquiry. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 21 (4), July-August 2008: 315-325 • Norman Denzin & Yvonna Lincoln The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research

17. ARETICLE # 5: A speculative one • Usually the section in your last chapter called, ‘Further research needed’ or ‘Recommendations’. • Eduard Ducharme & Mary Ducharme Needed Research in Teacher Education. In: Sikulu, J (ed) Handbook of Research on Teacher Education

18. More possibilities: refer to your objectives The aim of my study is to … in order to … • Policy Briefs • Guidelines • Textbooks

19. Even more possibilities: the popular audience versions • Newspaper articles • Local publications • Pamphlets • Newsletters • Internet • Blog spots

20. RULE # 6: Keep focused • Remember to align very article you write to a central idea/motivation: it is cardinal when applying for NRF rating. How your latest article relates to the previous one: what is your special field of study? How do you explore it? • Attend to every point the reviewer made in terms of your article • Continuously making and keeping contacts • Organize events that would generate a lot of research writing • Submit to a variety of academic journals

21. RULE # 7: Be ethical • Appropriate ascription of authorship to a publication • Rejection of any form of plagiarism (copying, parallelism, passing, duplication, invention and falsification) • No simultaneous submission of manuscripts

22. READING LIST • Rob Kitchin & Duncan Fuller 2005 The Academic’s Guide to Publishing, Sage • Leigh DeNeef & Craufurd Goodwin 2007 The Academic’s Handbook, Duke University Press (especially the section on Publishing Research)

23. Ballenger, 2007 The Curious Researcher: A Guide to Writing Research Papers (see: The 5 Week Plan) • Craswell, 2005 Writing for Academic Success: a Postgraduate Guide (see: Journal article and book publishing) • Farmer & Rojewski, 2001 research pathways; Writing Professional Papers, Theses and Dissertation in Workforce Education

24. Moxley & Taylor, 1997 Writing and Publishing for Academic Authors • Silvia, 2007 how to write a lot; a practical guide to productive academic writing • Van Rys, Meyer & Sebranet, 2012 The Research Writer: Curiosity, Discovery, Dialogue