Writing For Academic Journals

This book provides you with all the tools you need to write an excellent academic article and get it published.

"Academics are expected to write but seldom consider and discuss the nature of academic writing. As a result, the practice is shrouded in mystery. Writing for Academic Journals makes explicit much of what is normally opaque and it should be among the first ports of call for any academic who is contemplating getting published. This new edition achieves the near-impossible: improving on what was already acknowledged as a first-rate compendium". Professor Ronald Barnett, Institute of Education, University of London, UK "Our experience is that Rowena's practical approach works for busy academic staff. Not only does it enable them to increase their publication output and meet deadlines, but it boosts enthusiasm for writing and stimulates creative thinking." Kate Morss, Director, Queen Margaret University College, Edinburgh, UK "How many of us find the prospect of writing for an academic journal a daunting task so intimidating that barely an undetectable degree of arm twisting is required to further relegate the task to an ever lower position on our priority list? Sound familiar? Well look no further, those woes may be on the run thanks to this well thought-out and very readable short book." Ian Pearce,Consultant Urological Surgeon, Manchester Royal Infirmary This book unravels the process of writing academic papers. It tells readers what good papers look like and how they can be written. Busy academics must develop productive writing practices quickly. No one has time for trial and error. To pass external tests of research output we must write to a high standard while juggling other professional tasks. This may mean changing our writing behaviours. Writing for Academic Journals, Second Edition, has been comprehensively updated to include the most recent research and theory in order to provide new knowledge on writing across the disciplines. Drawing on her extensive experience of running writing workshops and working closely with academics on developing writing, Rowena Murray offers practical and tested strategies for good academic writing.

Busy academics must publish. To fulfil research output, they must write to a specific journal style and high standard while juggling other professional tasks. This book develops understanding of how writing happens, what good writing looks and feels like, what gets published and what does not and why.

This comprehensive guide to writing journal articles addresses all the stages and recurring challenges, from targeting a journal to dealing with reviewer feedback. Drawing on many years of running ‘Writing for Publication’ workshops, Murray explores not only style and structure but also behaviours and emotions. As a key component of both research courses and careers, this timely text also addresses the struggle to make time for high quality academic writing and how to ensure a writing-life balance. Examining a variety of approaches, relevant to many different academic disciplines, this core text demystifies and defines writing practices and makes this form of high-stakes academic writing seem manageable. Writing for journals has never been more competitive, and writers, researchers, practitioners and students need expert guidance on productive practices and ways of maintaining focus and motivation, which Murray provides. This latest edition is completely updated and more relevant than ever for clinicians, practitioners and students. "This book was already a classic, but the update makes it even more useful. From finding time to write, doing a short literature review and identifying scam journals, Rowena Murray provides an excellent, concise and accessible companion for writing academic journal papers, which is appropriate for both students and working academics." Associate Professor Inger Mewburn, Director of Research Training, The Australian National University, Australia “Rowena Murray has approached publishing in a journal with scientific rigour. Following this book’s recommendations will make it impossible to find a convincing excuse for failure to publish. She herself writes with a high level of artisanal skill; this book is fast paced, stylish and highly readable. Her own extensive experience in supporting journal article writers tempers this book with the credibility of a seasoned veteran. Best of all, there is a wealth of wisdom here—in advising on how to publish, Murray is also advising on how to live a satisfying life as a writer.” Associate Professor Susan Carter, University of Auckland, New Zealand “In Writing for Academic Journals (4th edition), Rowena Murray’s voice is direct, down-to-earth and wise. Drawing on a depth of practical experience as both published author and writing teacher, she conveys the message that, yes, publishing in academic journals is demanding, but it’s also very possible. And that once you are successful, there is still much to be learned from reading books like this one and hanging out with others in writing groups and workshops. To that end, the book is a trove of tips and techniques helpful to all who pursue the challenging craft of (good) academic writing.” Barbara Grant, Associate Professor in the School of Critical Studies in Education at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, and author of Academic writing retreats: A facilitator's uide

Gábor Lövei’s scientific communication course for students and scientists explores the intricacies involved in publishing primary scientific papers, and has been taught in more than twenty countries. Writing and Publishing Scientific Papers is the distillation of Lövei’s lecture notes and experience gathered over two decades; it is the coursebook many have been waiting for. The book’s three main sections correspond with the three main stages of a paper’s journey from idea to print: planning, writing, and publishing. Within the book’s chapters, complex questions such as ‘How to write the introduction?’ or ‘How to submit a manuscript?’ are broken down into smaller, more manageable problems that are then discussed in a straightforward, conversational manner, providing an easy and enjoyable reading experience. Writing and Publishing Scientific Papers stands out from its field by targeting scientists whose first language is not English. While also touching on matters of style and grammar, the book’s main goal is to advise on first principles of communication. This book is an excellent resource for any student or scientist wishing to learn more about the scientific publishing process and scientific communication. It will be especially useful to those coming from outside the English-speaking world and looking for a comprehensive guide for publishing their work in English.

In this guide to academic writing the author takes the reader step-by-step through the writing and publication process-from choosing a subject, developing content that will engage others, to submitting the final manuscript for publication.

Writing Centres in South Africa, and globally, are now well established academic support centres within many universities. Historically tasked with supporting students as they grapple with the demands of academic writing, many centres are now moving beyond their own walls to work with academic tutors, lecturers and departments to rethink the ways in which knowledge is transformed into different kinds of disciplinary writing. This move raises pertinent questions for writing centre directors, tutors/consultants, and for the universities that house them: how does a centre, tasked with supporting more general academic literacy development through writing pedagogies, initiate students into a range of particularised discourse communities? How do writing centre staff and disciplinary lecturers negotiate their shared, and separate, concerns for student learning through collaborative writing development projects? How do writing centres work with assignments and forms of literacy that challenge them to reconfigure their own pedagogical practices and expand their conceptions of writing support? How do writing centres maintain their core focus as they move flexibly beyond their own spaces to understand the nature of disciplinary writing? This collection of essays reflects on the ways in which writing centres in South Africa are working in and across disciplines. Institutional constraints and challenges that arise from these collaborations are addressed and opportunities for transforming teaching and learning spaces are explored. The chapters speak to the global move in higher education to reconsider how knowledge is made, who makes it, and how support and development opportunities for students and lecturers should be created and sustained across the disciplines. This volume contributes to the body of knowledge in the growing field of the scholarship of teaching and learning in higher education in South Africa. It builds on the work of the first collection of such essays: Changing Spaces: Writing Centres and Access to Higher Education (Eds. A. Archer and R. Richards, 2011, SUN PReSS) to understand why working within the disciplines is so critical for writing development in a South Africanÿcontext.

The purpose of this Open Access compendium, written by experienced researchers in mathematics education, is to serve as a resource for early career researchers in furthering their knowledge of the state of the field and disseminating their research through publishing. To accomplish this, the book is split into four sections: Empirical Methods, Important Mathematics Education Themes, Academic Writing and Academic Publishing, and a section Looking Ahead. The chapters are based on workshops that were presented in the Early Career Researcher Day at the 13th International Congress on Mathematical Education (ICME-13). The combination of presentations on methodological approaches and theoretical perspectives shaping the field in mathematics education research, as well as the strong emphasis on academic writing and publishing, offered strong insight into the theoretical and empirical bases of research in mathematics education for early career researchers in this field. Based on these presentations, the book provides a state-of-the-art overview of important theories from mathematics education and the broad variety of empirical approaches currently widely used in mathematics education research. This compendium supports early career researchers in selecting adequate theoretical approaches and adopting the most appropriate methodological approaches for their own research. Furthermore, it helps early career researchers in mathematics education to avoid common pitfalls and problems while writing up their research and it provides them with an overview of the most important journals for research in mathematics education, helping them to select the right venue for publishing and disseminating their work.