Publishing from Your PhD Negotiating a Crowded Jungle

There is consistent pressure on all academics to publish, publish, publish. But not unless they have been awarded their PhD - considered by most to be the starting step of an academic career. So while the pressure is on to obtain the title, and then obtain a permanent position, and then publish journal articles, there is little support available to researchers in the nascent stage of their careers. Publishing from Your PhD precisely focuses on providing early career researchers with emotional and collegial support that is often not available in academe. It seeks to dispel nepotistic notions of superiority that places Professors and such on a pedestal. It specifically clarifies the difficulty in having written the PhD thesis and then rewriting it to suit the genre of journal articles. It does not deal with the 'how' of academic writing in general. This book endeavours to shed light on the path one must take to navigate the jungles of academia. This is an untrodden path which is unique to every researcher - especially those who employ abstract or critical theories in their research - and each journey through the jungle is different. However, because there is little literature about this embryonic journey, this book illuminates the processes and difficulties of publishing in journals and culling one's finely honed thesis into small chunks - a difficult task to which few admit.

Contents: Introduction - navigating a jungle: no worn paths; Supplies are needed, packing the backpack: what others have written; Hacking a path through unknown territory; Navigating new terrain: the demise of the book?; Flies, gnats and wasps: negotiating the gatekeepers; The night is black: no black or white in academia; Stamina is needed for survival: choosing the right journal; Fighting the heat, hunger and thirst: dealing with rejection; Thorny bushes and muddy swamps: things that slow you down; The final destination has moved, hack another path: the process of culling and prioritising. Prologue: introducing the interviews with the academics: Professor Jan Herrington; Professor Paul Chandler; Professor Lori Lockyer; Professor Jan Wright; Professor Wilma Vialle; Professor Sara Dolnicar; Conclusion: negotiating the crowded jungle - acknowledge successful navigation; References; Index.

Dr Nicola F. Johnson recently published The Multiplicities of Internet Addiction: The Misrecognition of Leisure and Learning with Ashgate (2009). She is a senior lecturer in teacher education in the Faculty of Education at Monash University, Victoria, Australia. Nicola is an early career researcher who has recently been awarded her PhD (2008) and commenced a full-time career as an academic in early 2007.