Academic Publishing

By Raghu Korrapati

Academic Publishing by Dr Raghu Korrapati is a comprehensive guide to provide deep insights into academic publishing and how to avoid costly pitfalls. Being a scholar practitioner and publisher himself with over three decades years of academic and executive leadership work experience, Dr Korrapati has distilled key facets of academic publishing into nine core chapters ranging from the step-by-step process of academic publication to measuring the impact of published work while focusing on publication ethics and avoiding misconduct. Each chapter provides guiding principles and builds the foundation toward guiding you to become a successful scholar-publisher. Use this book as a guide to help you navigate the path toward becoming a great scholar publisher.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Diamond Books
• Release date: Jun 3, 2022
• ISBN: 9789355990402

Book preview

Chapter 1

Publication as Dissemination of Knowledge

An academic publication or journal is a publication which is published periodically in which scholarly information and knowledge about specific fields of study are examined and published for the benefit of the general public and majorly those concerned.

An academic journal serves as an avenue for researchers to impart their knowledge in a particular academic field, either the arts, sciences or even fundamental education. These journals are used to examine a specific matter of subject extensively and provide all the information that would be necessary relating to it and according to the research prowess of the researcher involved. Academic journals are often either peer-reviewed or refereed, both terms of which we shall examine further in the course of this book.

The terminology Academic Journal is not one that is limited to a particular field of study but applies to any scholarly publication or endeavor in whatever the field of education might be. An academic journal is used for the release of new research, experiments, and knowledge of credible and reliable researchers. Academic journals are used to disseminate knowledge with the intent of facilitating quality growth in various fields through the publication of qualitative and exemplary research articles. A significant feature of an academic journal that makes it differ from a regular journal or article is that it has to have been peer-reviewed.

These journals usually contain original research of individuals in various fields. This is a case whereby a researcher is presenting research work in an area of a study initially done by him or her. As stated earlier, this could be based on a subject matter in any field of study, be it the sciences, philosophical arts or nature. The area of research depends on the academic discipline of the researcher involved.

Academic journals could also be written based on the criticism of already existing research in a particular field. This is most popular in fields where a lot of research work has gone ahead, and subsequent researchers are either looking for ways to develop such research or stop such practices in their fields. Papers or academic journals that take this form are known as either review articles or book reviews.

You must note that although all scholarly endeavors and research in different academic disciplines are referred to as academic journals, and there is a significant variance in particular aspects of scientific journals of quantitative social sciences and humanities journals of qualitative social sciences. You must take note of this fact so that you do not confuse the structure of both with being the same.

Academic journal writing is peculiar to doctorate students or graduates who have to publish their work in journals. It is essential to understand the art of academic journal writing if you would like for your research work to be published. This study on academic journals aims to help and give direction on how to become proficient in writing an academic journal and furnishing you with all the necessary information that you would need as a student.

An academic journal is a means for the dissemination of knowledge, and you must note that shared understanding is not the only necessary thing. Still, the method and mode of propagation are equally essential. However, before we go further into that, you must see why academic journal publications are necessary for all fields of study. And why you should and must make a scholarly publication.

¹Why Academic Publishing is Important

There are numerous conditions why it is a necessity for professionals and researchers to publish academic publications and why these publications are vital in all academic disciplines.

1. Career Enhancement

Academic publications have been known to not only cause advancements in academic disciplines and fields of studies, but they also advance the career of the publisher. A doctorate student that needs to publish their work in a journal must not see this as a mere academic exercise that is compulsory. However, you must see this publication as an avenue for career enhancement.

An academic publication can enhance a researcher’s career the most if the work is excellent. This is most feasible if such academic journal overtime attains the first tier in the journal ranking. The journal ranking of such publication in their field is what would determine the impact of the journal on the author’s career. Once the journal contributes immensely to the area of study, it would gain the interest of members of that field and also serve as publicity in itself for the author.

The author can gain more recognition in his or her field of study. This recognition would not merely be limited to the professionals in that field of research but also members of the general public that might need the services of such a professional. This is the primary reason why medical practitioners are very disposed to writing journals and getting them published. It serves as a means of career advancement and publicity.

2. To raise questions

Another primary reason why academic journals are necessary is to initiate debates on matters and issues which the author might be interested in. Academic journals are a means for professionals in a specific academic field to air their thoughts concerning a particular subject matter in their area. When a doctorate student chooses a topic or is given a theme for their thesis or dissertation, it is with the intent that such a person provides valid and original information on that topic and share their views or research about that discussion.

Figure 1 Importance of Academic Publishing

Also, researchers and professionals in academic disciplines write journals to initiate debates about certain discrepancies that they might have noticed in a particular practice in their academic training. A lot of journals are written with the intent to ask questions and get tongues wagging enough to generate accurate and appropriate answers for the furtherance and advancement of healthy and modern practices in each field of study.

3. To share knowledge

As we have discussed this severally in this book, there is no doubt that publications are written with the motive of sharing knowledge. When researchers find out new information about a specific topic or entity in an academic discipline, the best way to disseminate such knowledge to the public is to write an academic journal. This is why Ph.D. students who are asked to research new dimensions of a field of study are usually requested to publish such work in a journal.

Academic journals are means of recounting to the public and members of a particular discipline the outcome of research embarked upon. Without academic journals, the process of dissemination of knowledge would be quite tricky or possibly non-existent in academic subjects. For this reason, the process has also been entrenched in the academic process of students trying to earn a doctorate.

Academic publication is a valid means of sharing acquired knowledge in a field, and it goes a long way in making room for further enhancement and more profound research about various subject matters. This shared knowledge is what other professionals in such disciplines build upon for further advancement and research.

Such shared knowledge and experiences are most useful in the medical profession as they can lead to several much-anticipated changes in specific clinical practices. The sharing of such knowledge would help to register the idea of the author in that academic discipline and encourage a lot of reasonable and productive transformations in that field.

4. To generate funds

Academic journals are also a means of generating funds for professionals. Unfortunately, it has become the only and major reason for some individuals, but that ought not to be the case. Academic journals are not supposed to be solely for generating funds even though that possibility is an incentive. It could also be that for some, these funds could be extremely necessary.

Due to the reasons listed above, academic journals are vital for all academic disciplines, and this way, they can serve all the purposes they were initially intended for in the education process. These are the general reasons why academic journals have been embraced in the education process. However, there are four primary functions of scholarly publications that differ from the purposes of publishing. ²The primary functions of a journal were laid down by the renowned authors Oldenburg and Hooke as early as 1665. These functions are what should characterize the significant features of a journal and expound on what is expected to satisfy both the needs of the reader and the author alike. They are:

1. Registration

An academic journal has a significant purpose of registering an author’s claim to precise research work and establishing the author’s precedence in whatever aspect of that subject matter that he or she might have unraveled first. The publication of an academic journal serves as a precedence for the researcher who had the privilege of resolving such a body of knowledge first. It is an author’s permanent patent on getting the experience of a subject matter first. It is a means of giving an author the recognition of foremost precedence in a research job. This helps to maintain originality and prevent work theft.

2. Certification

An academic journal also functions as a body of research work with integrity that has been certified. This verification and certification are carried out through peer-reviews, and this helps to ensure that whatever research work or experiment is published is authentic and good enough for the general public to rely on it. A journal publication functions as a means of information certification because before such information can be published, the authenticity and originality would have been reviewed extensively. This helps to make sure that whatever knowledge that intellectuals would be feeding on would be of integrity and suitable for intellectual consumption. There are structures in place to take care of this certification, which we would discuss subsequently.

3. Dissemination

An academic journal, as we have buttressed, is a means for the dissemination of information. In cases where a researcher would like to share certain information with the members and professionals of his academic discipline, an academic journal is the best option. A scholarly journal is the means through which the author can direct his work to the appropriate audience, and the audience also has the access they crave to such pieces of information.

4. Archiving

Academic journals also serve the purpose of archiving. This means that they create an avenue through which both the reader and the author can have a permanent record of the work in question and also have a means of both finding it and citing it. It helps readers to be able to navigate conveniently and comfortably to find the articles that they would like to make use of.

The above-examined reasons are the main reasons why academic journals are essential and the functions and purposes that they serve to both the reader and the author. By assessing these points, we can easily decipher why academic journals are so prestigious in the academic system and the reason they initially introduced into the curriculum of those studying to earn the highest degrees in their fields.

For Ph.D. students that are studying to get their doctorate, it is crucial to see that academic journals are required by you because, if you are going to obtain the highest degree in your profession on a specific subject matter within it, then you are also required to have the most top knowledge possible about that subject.

Academic journals are not punishment. Instead, they help one to see things in a new light and allow professionals to boost their careers as a result of having the means to share their first findings. Academic journals