Short Guides Series

Getting stuck is a normal part of the writing process, even for experienced writers. My aim in publishing this Short Guide is to help you generate new writing projects, keep your writing projects moving forward, and ensure that your writing process results in publications. A Short Guide to the Scholarly Writing Process focuses on writing as a process, from your initial curiosity about a topic or question, through the development of arguments, the identification of potential readers, the specification of a product, and the refinement of your writing for publication in a specific form. Advice about each stage of the process is accompanied by writing prompts to help you apply that advice in your own particular circumstances. I suggest reading through the Guide once to get a sense of how the whole thing fits together. Then, whenever you are stuck with a writing project, go to the part that speaks to what you need in that moment. Use the questions in that section to get things moving. I encourage you to actually write out answers to the questions. You are a writer. Writing is how you process your thoughts. Depending on where you are stuck, it might even be appropriate to write your answers in your project document. Short Guides #1, 9500 words approx

The third volume in the Short Guides series, Scholarly Publishing focuses on the big picture of publishing for scholarly audiences: Why publish for scholarly readers at all? What are your options? How are different options regarded in the evaluation processes that affect your career? What difference do different options make for potential readers? The opening chapter clarifies the relationship between scholarly publishing as a means of communicating with other scholars to advance knowledge and scholarly publications as a means of evaluating your scholarship and career. Then I move on to consider how the desired audience influences the choice of form and outlet. The main part of the guide contains a chapter for each of the main types of scholarly publication—books, peer reviewed journal articles, and various types of work-in-progress publishing (conference papers, working papers, etc)—going into more detail about the issues introduced earlier and suggesting particular issues to watch out for. The concluding chapter discusses various methods for improving the discoverability of your publications. Each chapter has questions to help you apply the information to your own situation. In addition to notes on the sources used in the text, I include suggested further reading on topics not covered in depth. Scholarly Publishing is a companion volume to the earlier volumes in the Short Guides series. Like the rest of the series, the goal is to help you get unstuck and to formulate more specific questions to ask mentors in your field and institution, colleagues who invite you to contribute to a volume or special issue, and publishers. I've kept it short so you can focus on writing and publishing, and structured it so you can dip into specific sections when needed. Enjoy your writing!

Finding Time for your Scholarly Writing addresses the problem of juggling writing alongside your other responsibilities. I identify three kinds of time: full days, longish sessions, and short snatches. In this Short Guide, I explain what kinds of writing you can do in each, and suggest ways of combining the three to ensure that you make the best use of the time available at different points in the academic year. Volume 2 of the Short Guides Series. See Volume 1, The Scholarly Writing Process for further details of the different kinds of writing tasks you might do in each kind of writing time. Approx length: 13 700 words including notes & references

Peer Review (A Short Guide) provides practical advice for authors and reviewers engaging with the peer review process in scholarly publishing. Despite valid criticisms of peer review as a system, it is crucial to the advancement of knowledge and the protection of academic freedom. Participating in peer review – as an author, a reviewer, a member of an editorial board, or an editor – ensures your scholarly peers' values play an important role in publishing decisions. Done well, peer review also provides important editorial feedback that improves the quality of knowledge. Being edited is difficult. Providing editorial feedback constructively is a skill you can develop. It is crucial to acknowledge and address your emotional reactions, and to focus on the work rather than the person. Everyone involved in these processes is capable of making significant contributions to knowledge. Peer review supports them in doing so. The Short Guide starts with an overview of what peer review (in publishing) is, why it is valuable, and some of the issues related to the voluntary nature of the labour. The rest of the guide is divided into two chapters based on your relationship with peer review on a specific occasion. As an author, you need to deal with reviewer comments, revise your manuscript, and resubmit. I provide practical advice for dealing with the emotional side of that, making a plan for your revisions, and writing a cover letter for the editor. There is also a section on dealing with reject decisions. For reviewers, in addition to advice about how to give feedback constructively to support the author in improving their manuscript, I also address how to respond to requests, how to find time to review, and how to deal with the emotional aspects of reviewing. Peer Review (A Short Guide) complements other books in this series to provide support for all stages of the scholarly writing process so you can do your job more confidently and even enjoy it. Volume 4 in the Short Guides Series. Length: 15k words approx

This bundle brings together 2 Short Guides to help you establish a writing practice: The Scholarly Writing Process and Finding Time for your Scholarly Writing. The Scholarly Writing Process helps you understand how the purpose of your writing changes as you move from idea to publication. There are questions and reflection prompts for every stage to help you figure out why you're stuck and how to get your project moving again. Finding Time for your Scholarly Writing discusses different kinds of time, focusing on how they might be used effectively and in combination to ensure that you are able to write regularly. You never have as much time as you want. You usually don't have the kind of time you'd really like. This bundle helps you. This bundle helps you match the time you have with an appropriate part of the process so you make progress anyway. Enjoy your writing!

This bundle brings together 2 Short Guides to help you navigate publishing your scholarly research: Scholarly Publishing and Peer Review. In Scholarly Publishing, I explain the relationship between the primary purpose of publishing as a way of communicating your research and the ways publications are used in processes that evaluate you as a scholar. The various publishing choices are explained to help you make decisions about what's best in your specific circumstances. There is also a brief section on promoting your work so that other scholars might find it. In the Short Guide to Peer Review, I treat review as primarily an editorial process, situated in relation to the value of academic freedom and the effects of it being voluntary labour. The emotional work involved in giving and receiving criticism, especially anonymous, asynchronous criticism, is also central to my approach. Guidance is provided for both addressing comments received from reviewers, and for providing effective editorial feedback as a peer reviewer. The information here will also enable the reader to ask better questions of mentors and others with specific institutional or disciplinary expertise.