CozyD Posted December 30, 2019 Posted December 30, 2019 I got my BA in Creative Writing and Literary Studies 10 years ago. Now I am in a Social Psychology Ph.D. program studying sexuality. I'm still really interested in literature, particularly in how contemporary social/psychological ideas about sex/relationships are expressed in new fiction. I've recently been thinking about trying to do some writing along these lines and realized that I am really confused about how publishing works in the literature field. I've tried doing searches, but I can't get results that are specific to literature, everything's just general results about publishing in grad school with references to "literature review." But I'd love links to resources if you have any. (I have a decent sense of how publishing works in social psych and sexuality: - I know the big social psych and sexuality journals. - I know some people get a couple publications before grad school. - I know being competitive on the academic job market means having a few publications by the time you finish the Ph.D. - I know that being a first or sole author is good, and it's important to have a couple of these, but that it's also really common for a paper to be a collaboration of 2 to 5+ people. - I know the emphasis is peer-reviewed articles. Book chapters are good but not the main thing. Having a book is great but not at all expected. - I know that presentations are good too, but not as important as publications. - I know most often a social psych article is presenting new quantitative/qualitative data, or sometimes synthesizing data from lots of previous work.) I can't figure out how any of this stuff works in Literature. - It seems like a lot of literature people aren't really publishing much at all during their Ph.D. programs? - It seems like almost everything is sole authored? - It seems conferences are a bigger thing? And maybe the culture is more that you read a finished piece of writing rather than talk from slides? - Maybe books are a bigger deal? - What's the whole deal with academic Book Reviews? Are these considered a worthwhile thing to spend time on? Are these supposed to function like short critical pieces? - What's even the basic expectations for the kind of contributions a paper is supposed to make to the field to be worth being published? - What are new grad students in Literature departments told about how to think of and approach publishing? - What kind of publications does one want to have in Literature before going on the job market? Thanks for any info you can share! And if you're curious about any more details of how this works in social psych or sexuality, I'm happy to field questions in the other direction!
Glasperlenspieler Posted December 30, 2019 Posted December 30, 2019 I'm a little confused by what you're going for since your questions seem much more directed towards the role of publishing in the academic job market for literary studies than they do with actually publishing in literary studies. If you're thinking of trying to get a job in an English/literature department with a social psychology PhD, that's extremely unlikely. With that caveat aside, here's some answers to your questions. 1 hour ago, CozyD said: It seems like a lot of literature people aren't really publishing much at all during their Ph.D. programs? This depends. Going on the market without any publications isn't great (but is done). More than, say, three articles would probably be pretty unusual for someone coming out of a PhD program (though again, it happens). 1 hour ago, CozyD said: It seems like almost everything is sole authored? Single authorship is the norm. This may be slowly changing and there are increasinly initiatives encouraging various forms of research collaboration. The vast majotiry of articles published in literary studies are single-authored. 1 hour ago, CozyD said: - It seems conferences are a bigger thing? And maybe the culture is more that you read a finished piece of writing rather than talk from slides? I have no idea on the comparative. Conferences matter but more for networking than your CV (though the lack of any conferences probably isn't good). Generally people read a paper at a conference. Sometimes slides with relevant quotes are provided. It's pretty rare for someone to speak extemporaneously for a conference presentations (though it happens). 1 hour ago, CozyD said: - Maybe books are a bigger deal? Again, can't help you with the comparative. PhD students don't normally publish books. To get tenure, many departments require that your first book be (at minimum) accepted for publication. 1 hour ago, CozyD said: - What's the whole deal with academic Book Reviews? Are these considered a worthwhile thing to spend time on? Are these supposed to function like short critical pieces? They don't count for nothing but they're not as important as articles. They can be a relatively easy way to get a publications since they're usually pretty short. Most reviews consist of a summary with a handful of critical/laudatory comments. They allow scholars to determine if a book's worth reading and sometimes function as a sort of accreditation. More extensive "response papers" are sometimes published by journals, but those are usually by more senior scholars. 1 hour ago, CozyD said: - What's even the basic expectations for the kind of contributions a paper is supposed to make to the field to be worth being published? What counts as a contribution to the field is sort of like asking what the field does. You'll get lots of different answers to that. The only way to really get a sense of it though it to become acculturated in the discipline. A starting point for this is reading lots of academic articles in the field and trying to figure out what they do. 1 hour ago, CozyD said: - What are new grad students in Literature departments told about how to think of and approach publishing? Depends on the department/professor/student. General rules. Publishing is good/necessary for professional success. Don't publish sub-par work. Don't focus on publishing to the detriment of your dissertation. Don't publish in sub-par journals. As a grad student, you probably shouldn't submit something to a journal without consulting an advsor. 1 hour ago, CozyD said: - What kind of publications does one want to have in Literature before going on the job market? At least one article is probably good. If not an article, then definitely try for a book review. More is better as long as it doesn't extend time-to-degree, or take time away from your dissertation. You also don't want to publish too much though, since things published before getting hired generally won't count towards your tenure review. Book chapters count less than articles but more than book reviews. But that also depends on the book. coffeelyf 1
CozyD Posted December 31, 2019 Author Posted December 31, 2019 Thanks! I lot of these questions are more curiosity than info I think I need for some specific goal.
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now