Module 1

Orientation

Welcome to ECI721

I would like to welcome to ECI721. This is one-credit hour doctoral level course. I hope to the end of the class, each of you have a manuscript to submit to a peer-reviewed journal. I will work with you on this journey and do my best to assist you. Publication writing is very different dissertation writing, class research paper writing. They are many things we need to learn.

Many of you may ask: Why should I learn how to write a publication manuscript if I don't have the need to do so for my career?

My answer to you is that a personal holding a Ph.D. should have the knowledge and the skills in writing, reading, and reviewing peer-reviewed journal articles. If you have a less chance to write, you need to have the knowledge in reading, and reviewing journal articles. When you read journal articles for your professional work, you have strong knowledge and skills to determine whether the research is done scientifically, logically with definitive gold in mind.

I have you any existing writings that you them into journal manuscripts and ready to submit by the end of the class. If you don't have collected data, and analyzed results, can we publish literature review? The answer is YES. Do you know what Narrative literature review is? If not, read these to help you to understand how we may turn general literature review into publishable manuscripts.

• Literature Review: Traditional or narrative literature reviews

• Systematic literature review X narrative review

If you don't have collected data and analyzed results already, Theoretical/Methodological/Historical literature review would be a good choice to publish. Remember, our class is not to teach you write literature review instead to prepare you to write for publications. Writing for assignments and dissertations are different from writing for publications.

This course is delivered as online but I would like to do my best to meet with each of you in person or online at least once this semester so I can know you better. I will make the announcements. From time to time, I will hold virtual office hour. I would like to make sure all of you are making good progress in our class.

Start preparing our module instructions. Always stay ahead each upcoming module.

I was assigned by the departments to instruct this course. I will continue updating our upcoming modules. Please bear with me. Thanks for your understanding.

Let's work on this journey.

Course Announcement

• Optional

• Would you like to get notified on the course announcements on blogger, Twitter, or Facebook without logging in BBLearn? Follow ECI721 blog, Twitter, or Facebook Page at:

  • ECI721 Twitter

  • ECI721 Facebook Page

  • ECI721 Blog

Self introductions: Discussion Board

• It is important to know a little something about the people in our class. To do that, we post our self introductions on the Discussion Board area. Self-introduction is an excellent resource to use in forming a good team; therefore, open yourself up. If you have pictures that you would like to share with us, please do so. Here are some ideas to help you get started.

  • • Your name and what you liked to be called.

    • General information about where you live and what you do.

    • What is our academic research interests and/or dissertation topic?

    • What your expectations are for our class.

    • What makes you unique.

    • A picture of you, or an image that represents you.

    • Links to some of your favorite things.

    • Your hobbies, etc.

    • Anything else that you want to provide

Form a team

• Students are required to form teams. Students should form their own teams by using the BBLearn Group Sign-Up feature. Each team is composed of THREE members (We may have 3 or more in some groups.). However, when one or two students are left without a team, they may be assigned to a group to form a team with 3-4 members. (We have FIVE students so far. One group will have 2 students while the other one has 3 students.)

  • Group related assignments: Assignment 2, 4, & 6: Peer review

    • If your group has more than three people, please arrange it so every member will provide and receive at least two peer reviews. Certainly, it is fine if your group decides to provide and receive more than two peer reviewers. It would enrich your learning experiences.

• It is recommended that students select teammates who have similar professional interests. Reading the students' bio will help introduce you to your classmates. Teams will collaborate throughout the entire semester. Building good relationships with teammates is highly encouraged, therefore, you must be thorough in your bio and be open about yourself.

Choosing A journal

Considerations

• • The topic of your paper/conceptual framework

  • Your methodology/methods

  • The quality of your study

  • Selectivity of journal

  • Editorial board

Topic and Conceptual Framework

• • How general is the topic? Who cares about this topic? Does it hold interest for a wide audience, or is it very narrow in terms of interest?

  • What is your conceptual framework, and where do others holding this framework this framework publish?

  • Is this a “crossover” study, bridging two fields, or is it clearly situated in a single field?

  • Searching for clues: Look at your works cited. Do you notice that a single journal stands out in frequency? Is there an article or set of articles that you see as similar to your own work? Where were these published?

Methodology/Methods

• Not all journals publish all types of research

■ Is your paper:

• • • Empirical or conceptual?

    • Qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods?

      • Correlational, Experimental/quasi-experimental, case-study, narrative, grounded theory, action research, hermeneutical, interview, etc.?

    • A literature review? A meta-analysis?

Quality of your Study

• • Is this a top quality study, similar to what is published in the best journals of your field?

    • No study is perfect, all have flaws. Try to identify the flaws in your work, and compare these to other published work in your field. Be honest with yourself about the flaws:

  • What are the limitations? Are there design issues? Implementation issues? Does it fall short in terms of breadth or depth of content in the literature review? Is your analysis outdated or overly simplistic? Does the study contribute something new to the field?

Learning about Your Options

• • There are many, many journals publishing good quality research. You are probably familiar with just a few.

How to learn about your options:

• • Pay attention to which journals you frequent in your own research

  • Search online for journals, e.g. Top Journals in _____________

  • Use a journal indexing source, e.g. Google Scholar, Web of Science, Scopus, Cabell’s Directory, ERIC

Aims and Scope

• • Every journal will have a description of their Aims and Scope. This will inform you about:

    • Major topics of interest for the journal

    • Types of methodologies published

    • The audience for the journal

    • Sometimes other information, such as the impact factor, etc.

  • For example: https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=aimsScope&journalCode=hcgi20

  • If your project does not fit the aims and scope of the journal, do not submit it to this journal. It won’t be reviewed beyond the first step, and submitting will be a waste of time.

Open Access Journals

• • Some journals are open access, meaning anyone can read the articles, and the articles are not behind a paywall.

    • Benefits: Possibility to disseminate your work freely; more access to people outside of the academy

    • Costs: Usually, you have to pay to publish; some “open access” journals are disreputable and predatory – just trying to make money from academics that are trying to publish without advancing knowledge in the field

    • Understanding the full potentials of OA (Open Access)

      • Zoom recording: 48:39

Avoiding Predatory Journals

Go For it! Submitting to Highly ranked journals

If you are not under enormous time pressure to publish, you might start by submitting your work to a highly ranked journal. Even if it gets rejected, you will get the best feedback.

Event: Peer Review Week

It is a good event to look into. It has many good resources for peer-reviewed journal publications. You can connect it through email, and other social networking sites to get updated on their events and resources.