How to publish successfully

In many cases publishing fails not because of poor research quality but rather due to the disregard of many written and some unwritten formal rules in publishing policy.

Publishing your research in your favourite journal requires thinking about these rules even before you start writing, and they should guide the writing process until the effective release of your article in a journal or book. Since journals vary widely culturally and technically, one has to consider the different audiences and special demands of individual journals and publishers.

In the workshop, we will discuss these cultural and technical differences based on examples of how you should (not) write an article, and therefore develop a sense for purposeful writing:

Whether or not the selected journal fits  your research and vice versa

  • Different “cultures” of argumentation in international and monolingual journals and their impact on your writing;
  • Different kinds of audiences in universal and specialized
  • Considering cultural differences (e.g. German vs. Anglo-American ways of documenting research);
  • Interaction with editors, journals, and publishers.

Furthermore, we will discuss practical matters concerning the submission of articles and the formal hurdles to publishing successfully.

Stefan T. Hopmann is Professor of Education at the University of Vienna. He has been co-operating with journals and publishers in several countries (e.g. Germany, Scandinavia, UK, and USA) and currently serves on the editorial boards of the European Educational Research Journal and of the US-based Journal of Educational Change; he is also Executive Editor (General Editor as from 2010) of the international Journal of Curriculum Studies.

Roland Reichenbach is Professor of Education at the University of Basel and at the University of Applied Science North-western Switzerland. He has published widely in German, English and French and co-operated with journals and publishers in many countries. He is currently General Editor of the German Zeitschrift für Pädagogik.

Ian White is publisher and responsible for all Journals in Education at Taylor & Francis (including Routledge).