Support, Acknowledge & Respond

In writing researcher papers the authors should “make a claim, back it with reasons, support them with evidence, acknowledge and respond to other views, and sometimes explain your principles of reasoning” (Booth, Colomb & Williams, 2003, p. 108).  These four criterion need to be shaped by the literature and the existing conversations about your topic of interest.  I think the key to having a convincing argument is an informed description and discussion of current research.

During graduate school students spend a majority of their time writing, and often rewriting pieces.  During a recent classroom discussion, it was brought to my attention that a majority of students either write expository bits or persuasive morsels – hardly ever in the same space. Expository writing conveys discourse that explains, describes and informs the audience (Ball, 1999). Unlike persuasive writing, the primary goal of exposition is to simply deliver information about a subject, method, theory or issue. In persuasive writing the author makes a case and encourages the readers to follow a specific course of action or thought (Frost, 2013).

Often we have big ideas that we want to convey to our readers, and sometimes we have to build off limited literature in up-and-coming themes…but more often than not as writers we end up describing what others have said and then expanding their notions to fit our models of thought.  A great way of conveying your point is to have well structured key sentences.

 

 

References

Ball, A. (1999, June). Information about expository writing. Retrieved from http://www.stanford.edu/~arnetha/expowrite/info.html

Booth, W. C., Colomb, G. G., & Williams, J. M. (2003). The craft of research. (3rd ed.). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Frost, J. (2013, November 3). Ten important triggers for persuasive writing. Retrieved from http://www.grammarcheck.net/ten-important-triggers-for-persuasive-writing/

 

 

 

Publishing in Edu Tech Fields

One of the crucial decisions student researchers need to make after wrapping up their research project is where to send it off to. While a couple of fields have bidding systems for article publications, education unfortunately isn’t as cut throat.  Unlike certain fields, educational researchers can generally only send their final products off to a single journal…and, therefore it is imperative for up-and-coming researchers to really know their journals.  Once the article or proposal is sent off there can be upwards of a 6 month wait to hear back, or before one can send the work off for another review.

There are several critical aspect of a journal that should be considered before sending off your article.  The first aspect to consider are the type of articles.  What types of articles are generally published.  This can include common themes, general research designs, and coverage of certain methodologies.  There are particular journals dedicated to specific audiences, like teacher-practitioners, international contexts, or researchers who use certain methods.  It is important to know not only your audience but also the type of articles that are accepted.  There isn’t a point to sending an article off to a journal that has no interest in your topic. So consider, is your research practice oriented? Would in-service- teachers be interested in your research topic? Klein (1997), as cited by Price and Maushak (2000), breaks down articles into four distinct categories: case studies; empirical research; literature reviews; and descriptions.  While there can certainly be more categories added to this list, they are by far most common in educational (technology) journals.

More then research design and themes are journal guidelines.  There are some journals that expect 20 pages of text (without the references) and others which cap article texts to 5,000 words.  Other journals use specific citation styles and submitting to every journal is just a little different.  It is important that you review the author guidelines well before the submission deadline.  Make sure that your have everything in the right format a head of time.  You would be surprised at how long it takes to make little changes like switching over to another citation style or changing all titles/subtitle to specifications.

While it shouldn’t be a huge factor, the acceptance rate often influences new researchers when selecting journals.  There is certainly more hope when a journal has a 47% acceptance rate versus a more competitive 11% acceptance rate.  I have this theory…Aim high! Try for your dream journal and if need be you can always adapt, change and amend your work, and then resubmit to your second choice.  Newren (1992) comments on the variety of factors influencing article rejection that include: lack of topic alignment with journal; poor topic or research design choice; inappropriate  use of writing style or using the wrong citation style; overall poor writing or poor quality research; articles don’t met length or image guidelines; and/or there were issues of plagiarism.

Lastly, I suggest for all students to become reviewers for the journals they hope to publish in.  by becoming a reviewer it gives you just a heads up as to the quality of articles and an inside perspective as to how articles are critiqued.

I was recently submitting as article for publication and had to make several considerations.  The first thing I wanted to ensure was that my participants, who so graciously volunteered their time and support, would have access to read the journal.  That automatically lead me to consider open source journals.  But the rigor of my field and the competitive nature of my academic program required to submit my article to a peer-reviewed journal.  That is where I began my hunt for journals…with those two criteria in mind.  You have to pick a place to start. Maybe start with: what is really important to you? Journal rigor? Accessibility? A journal with a high H-index factor? Something that is free and open for all to read?

References

Klein, J. D. (1997). ETR&D-Development: An analysis of content and survey of future direction. Educational Technology Research and Development, 45(3), 57-62.

Newren E. F.  (1992). Pushed to publish? Writing for publications in the field of instructional media. International Journal of Instructional Media, 19(2). 111–125

Price, R. V., & Maushak, N. J. (2000). Publishing in the Field of Educational Technology: Getting Started. Educational Technology, 40(4), 47-52.