Academic journal read: 1
Monograph indexed: 1
Hairs torn out: rather a lot!
It’s so rewarding when something you have worked on goes into print and finally after several months of waiting reaches you as a shiny new book or journal article. This time it wasn’t even my words that had gone into print, but rather a journal of which I am reviews editor. I still feel quite maternal about the project though and feel marvelous now it is officially out in the world. Reviews editor is one of those academic jobs that very few people do for the money, in fact my role is completely voluntary. Like me, you may do it for the love of scholarship, others do it for the free books (we get to pick the cream of the latest books in our subject and keep them for ourselves to review later. We also get to give free books to our friends, which is great!). Others still do it for career enhancing CV potential, it always looks great if you can show an employer that you do these little extras, and it’s a way of keeping abreast of your field.
I would recommend the job to anyone, but beware, you won’t see reviews editorships advertised in the media or online, these roles are distributed by word of mouth only, so make sure you get networking next time you go to a conference, or an editor of a journal comes to your university to give a paper.
But with every silver lining comes a cloud. While most tasks involved in getting your work published are thrilling and challenging, there is one or two that make the face of every academic fall at the mere mention of them. One of those is indexing your own book.
So, while you are outside sunning yourself in this beautiful spring weather, spare a thought for us poor academics stuck in front of our computers trying to find every mention of Elizabeth I in a 300 page monograph: sigh!
Do you have any experiences of getting work published? Maybe you are a publisher yourself and can comment on the academic publishing debate?
Catherine,
I’m looking to add to some depth and breadth to my CV, as I am currently still looking for employment. You mention becoming an reviews editor, can you suggest anything else that has worked for you?
Thanks Cheryl
Hi Cheryl,
Thanks for your reply. Organising your own events is always a good way of networking with more senior academics, showing you have good admin skills, and getting that CV boost. Perhaps organising a seminar series or reading group in your department or a one day conference. These things do cost money so ask colleagues for help in sourcing funding.
Also, simply showing that you are generally interested in your subject helps, perhaps by giving public lectures, teaching adult learners, marking A level papers etc.
Catherine
I know exactly what you mean, it’s a catch-22 situation: you don’t have time to do all the CV boosting things in order to get a job…because you are working lots of short term contracts with heavy teaching loads and don’t have that stability to start extra-curricular activities.
Getting into academia is very competitive in many fields, and, yes, you do have to be 110% committed, so having really supportive family and friends helps! But in general focus on two things: your teaching and your research, anything you can do to boost your reputation in those areas will stand you in good stead. What I was saying was ‘think outside the box’. But it is incredibly tough, I agree.
No offence but how can we find the time to do all these fantastic scholarly things and get a job (even have a life if possible) I find myself bogged down applying for anything and everything and the idea of adding more deadlines into my life gives me the nervous shakes even if you do get free things.
I know the love of the subject and being in academia goes a long way but should I be prioritising more/better on what I do do towards my CV apply for or I am just not superhuman enough? It does always sound like I am expected to do so much and be so committed
Dear Catherine, I enjoyed reading your stuff this first encounter on jobs.ac.uk; I would like to add this experience to the column on “Publication: the good and the bad” After several nights of manuscript polishing for acceptance in reputable journals abroad, all you get is oh! “this was well writen, the experiment well conducted but unfortunately, we feel it will be nice for your local journal”! Reason? the experimental procedure is no more in vogue as there are now improved methodologies; thanks to modern equipment yet to be available in developing economy! The agony of being a Scientist from a developing country – especially Africa.
To Prof: that is really tough. In my field (history) fashions and interests vary across the globe and so an article could be refused by a journal for not fitting into the current vogue, but historians worldwide have very simple, accessible tools to work with. It sound very tough for a scientist in the developing world to compete on an international level. Do (or anyone else) have any advice for overcoming these sorts of problems?