Category Archives: Writing

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Top Tier Journals in Higher Education

Academic journals are the primary way that scholars communicate with one another. Since the beginning of academic publishing over a century ago, the journal manuscript has become the primary academic currency. In recent years, it has become difficult to measure the quality of journals with the proliferation of the number of journals being published now. In today’s post, I want to provide a list of the top tier higher education as a resource for higher educations scholars and graduate students.

top tier journals in higher education

Photo credit: Alex Proimos
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The Power of a Writing Routine

Routines can be powerful drivers of human behavior. When we do certain things the same way every time, we are able to save our focus and brain power for the things that really need our attention. Moreover, a routine helps prepare you for engaging in a certain activity. In today’s post, I want to explore the power of a writing routine to help supercharge your writing activities.

the power of a writing routine

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One of my favorite ways to think about academic work is to learn about the daily habits and processes of experts. My goal isn’t to copy what these experts do verbatim, but to think about how their process can inform my own.

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Backward design can help you plan your research

Research is more than simply collecting data and writing up results. Particularly if you’re a pre-tenure assistant professor looking to establish your research agenda, research is also about planning and arranging your publications. Without a sufficient guide, you can miss opportunities or fall short of your institution’s research expectations for tenure and beyond. In today’s post, I want to share how backward design can help you plan your research activities.

backward design can help you plan your research

Photo credit: Paul Albertella

Backward design is an approach to curriculum development that calls for creating learning goals and then working backward from those goals to determine instructional methods and assessments.

The goal with backward design is to teach toward specific goals which helps to focus and organization a course. Backward design provides a roadmap to guide the instructor.

Similarly, backward design can help you develop a roadmap for your research activities. 

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Tips for publishing with students

Graduate and undergraduate students can be tremendous assets to your research endeavors and can serve as the embodiment of a merger between your teaching and research activity. For all the benefits of working with students, some concerns and challenges exist. In today’s post, I want to share some tips for publishing with students that you can use to make sure that your publishing relationships with students go well for everyone involved.

tips for publishing with students

Photo credit: Alan Levine
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What are the types of academic publications?

Academic publishing represents one of the most significant aspects of the work of faculty members as well as graduate students. One’s success in academic publishing fundamentally determines one’s success in higher education. Publishing is vital for getting a faculty position and critical in the tenure decision. Unlike other aspects of faculty work such as teaching or service, the high stakes world of academic publishing is fraught with complications. What counts? How is one type of publication weighted compared to another? These questions are quite context-specific depending on your discipline, institution, and department. In today’s post, I want to help unpack academic publishing and research by exploring the question of what are the different types of academic publications.

Photo credit: Sam Churchill

Like the broader publishing world, academic publishing has changed dramatically in recent years. Universities have closed academic presses and the need to turn a profit, while always present, has grown exponentially more relevant to publishing decisions.

The ratcheting up of tenure expectations with institutional aspirations has led to journals and presses being inundated with mediocre manuscripts.