Whilst updating my academic profiles on Google Scholar and LinkedIn, I was rather surprised to come across several pieces of research that I’d written but not published in an official academic manner.
This research took several forms:
- Some papers that had been developed early on in my PhD research and informed my later thesis, but which hadn’t been substantially well-enough “shaped” to submit
- Two papers that I wrote with a BCU colleague after joining, but which I had rather lost track of asking he had agreed to seek publication for these
- One paper written with a former MSc project student, which needed reducing in size before it could be published
- And various papers which had been started, but not completed, with other academic commitments getting in the way
It’s unlikely now that the papers would be publishable without some substantial rework. If nothing else, the fields on which these papers were written will have moved on and the information will look dated. It does, however, seem a pity to have research that has been written but is not published anywhere, so I will look to see if there is any way to resurrect these.
Now, all that comes before other research which has been involved students which could easily be made publication ready (given time):
- There are several good student projects which I’ve worked on previously with students which could easily be made into conference papers
- In the Professional Practice 2 module students carry out a research investigation as part of an Action Learning Set. There have been some good efforts for this module too.
Both of these meet the wider requirements of the “Students As Partners” movement which is rightfully gaining traction across the Higher Education Sector.
There are also pieces of research that I’ve carried out to involve students in modules which could also be published.
Finally, I recently wrote a sample literature review on an aspect of the contract cheating area, designed to show students how they could undertake an assessment of their own. Whilst the Literature Review probably isn’t publication ready in its own right, some gaps in the literature became immediately clear to me.
Generally, these were things that I remember presenting about (or watching other people give presentations on) during research seminars and workshops, but which had never made it through the formal documented process of an academic publication.
Some of these talks could easily be made into an academic conference paper with very little new work needed.
It just goes to show how much research is out there.
My Challenge
My challenge is to see what research can be rescued and used in some other form.
If nothing else, a number of previously published pieces of research are no longer available anywhere. Conferences which had web sites hosted by universities have since had their entire archives removed (one of the dangers of relying on a third party to host information).
I need to go back through the archive of what I’ve done, see what can be made available and see how it can be made available. Just having a single archive of papers and talks (linked to the appropriate copyright holders where necessary) is important, as opposed to stylistically different versions spread over multiple sites.
Just getting everything in order for my own records will represent a big achievement.
Your Challenge
Your challenge is to consider your own academic publications and see what information there is out there and how it’s stored.
If nothing else, I recommend updating your LinkedIn profile to include the Publications and making sure that these are archived on your own sites.
Students, as well, should think if there’s anything you’ve done which contains academic research and which might be publishable with the aid of your lecturers or project supervisor.
How does that sound? Is there anything that I’ve missed or which you wish to add?
Just comment below and do go ahead and share your thoughts.