Publications

[jkl444]

Does anyone have any publications in academic journals? It certainly helps to have one, right? I just found out my writing sample was published in a journal in the U.K., so I wrote a letter to all the places where I applied informing them. Does anyone know how much weight committees put on publications? Please forgive me if there's already a thread about this.

[JennyFieldsOriginal]

I'm sure it's a nice feather in your cap, and it certainly can't hurt you. However, I'm applying right out of undergrad to PhD programs and nobody made a peep about the fact that I don't have any publications.

I think it's never a bad thing, but how good a thing it is depends on the quality of the journal you're published in. If it's a journal no one has heard of I don't think it's going to detract from your application at all, and it's a good addition to your CV, but I don't think it will make a gigantic difference to your results.

At any rate, congratulations on your publication...and hopefully many more!

[intextrovert]

Congrats on the publication! That's really exciting.

Mostly seconding JennyFields's feather-in-cap comment. My adviser suggested that I work on turning my senior thesis into an article and trying to get published, but the impression I got that it wasn't really the publication itself that would impress them. She said the most important thing it might communicate was that I'd kept up my academic/professional energy even as I was outside of academia. As it turns out, I did not have time to do so with my current job! That sort of continued energy and initiative can be communicated in other ways, though.

At any rate, it gives you some confidence about your sample!

[augustquail]

I wonder if there is any info/resources for people like us about academic publishing in English. (By 'people like us' I mean PhD applicants, w or w/o Ma's, who are trying to figure out what/and most importantly WHERE to publish). I can see how it would be intimidating trying to figure out which journals are 'quality' journals; a lot of texts call themselves 'peer reviewed' after all. Anyone know of any info like this?