When we talk about the possibilities which social media offer for rethinking scholarly communication, it’s easy to slip into the trap of thinking this ambition is a new one. We counterpoise the ‘new’ and the ‘old’, the innovative and the traditional, the digital… Read More ›
Tag Archive for ‘publishing’
The turn to end all turns
The upwards trajectory of publication poses an obvious problem for the aspiring academic. It is one familiar from other fields of cultural production. How to be heard above the din? If ever more publications are being produced each year, commanding ever… Read More ›
What is ‘the literature’?
My experience of watching the literature on asexuality spiral from a handful of papers ever through to new ones each month has left me fascinated by how quickly ‘the literature’ can become unmanageable. Within a relatively small and nascent field,… Read More ›
A conversation with Gary Hall about pirate philosophy, academic celebrity and social theory
In this interview, Gary Hall argues that if we are to move to a post-capitalist society, we need to experiment with new ways of being and doing that are based less on ideas of self-centred individualism, competition and celebrity, and… Read More ›
Some thoughts on fast and slow science in the accelerated academy
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about how the social sciences are proving too slow in catching up to developments in digital technology. This means that engagements with new possibilities are often piecemeal and ad hoc, pushing the threshold of innovation in methods while… Read More ›
Create Your Publication Strategy
This new six-week course is designed to help post-docs improve their writing and maximise their chances of publication. The course is run by Dr Helen Kara (UK) and Dr Janet Salmons (US) who, between them, have extensive publication experience and… Read More ›
Why publish? The politics of communication in perishing times
In her inaugural lecture, Professor Sarah Kember asks how a new generation of independent and university presses can reinvent rather than reinforce what counts in scholarly and artistic practice. In a context of ongoing crisis and policy reform in publishing,… Read More ›
Call for Proposals: Sociological Futures Series
A new initiative undertaken by Routledge in collaboration with the BSA. Some of the initial books look excellent. Find out more here: Call for Proposals: Sociological Futures Series – in collaboration with the BSA Sociological Futures aims to be a… Read More ›
Predatory Publishers Lapping up Content
Recently, Gmail failed to filter out a spam email sent by a company called LAP Lambert Academic Publishing. I don’t usually receive these, as they land straight into my Junk box, so I googled the name of the company. It… Read More ›
How to shift sociological product: lessons from the career of tony giddens
Taking the lead from Peter Walsh’s laudible work on academic celebrity, here’s some lessons from the career of Tony Giddens which I inferred from this excellent review article Peter pointed me towards, coupled with my own reading of Giddens, who… Read More ›
What will micro-publishing look like in higher education?
A few weeks ago I was browsing a photography bookshop in London and came across the term ‘micro-publisher’ for the first time. The friend I was with seemed slightly bemused that I hadn’t encountered the term and explained that it… Read More ›
Ghosts of Sociologists Past in the Accelerated Academy
I’m currently reading Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures by Mark Fisher. It’s an interesting book which explores a condition in which “life continues, but time has somehow stopped”. His claim is that this “stasis has been… Read More ›
Life in the accelerated academy: how it’s possible for Žižek to publish 55 books in 14 years
I’ve long been a little bit fascinated by Žižek. I find him utterly hypnotic to watch and have consumed countless YouTube lectures by him. I genuinely enjoy his journalistic output and have read a lot of it via the Guardian, London Review of Books… Read More ›
The intellectual legitimacy of academic blogging
One of my favourite academic blogs is Understanding Society. Written by the philosopher Daniel Little, it covers a diverse range of topics across the social sciences while continually coming back to a number of core theoretical questions that fascinate me. Reflecting on its seventh… Read More ›
The slow death of originality? Thoughts on the self-plagiarisation of Slavoj Žižek
There’s an interesting article by Žižek on the Guardian website. It’s a little too pop-sociological for my tastes but it’s nonetheless an engaging read. However the first paragraph of the article is lifted verbatim from his The Year of Dreaming Dangerously: During a recent visit… Read More ›
Are 90% of academic papers really never cited?
There’s a fantastic article on the LSE Impact Blog which addresses this often cited yet rarely substantiated claim: Many academic articles are never cited, although I could not find any study with a result as high as 90%. Non-citation rates… Read More ›
What’s the Point of Academic Publishing?
What’s the point of academic publishing? It’s such an integral part of the academic role in the contemporary university that it can be jarring to step back and ponder a question like this. It was addressed by Sarah Kendzior in a great article… Read More ›
How long till we have Open Access books?
There’s an extremely informative article on the LSE Impact Blog giving a useful overview of the still uncertain future of open access monographs. There are a variety of potential models which could be adopted for publishing open access monographs and… Read More ›
BSA Postgraduate / Early Careers Researchers Special Event 8th Oct 2013
BSA Postgraduate / Early Careers Researchers Special One Day Event ‘Writing & Publishing a Qualitative Article’ Tuesday 8 October 2013, 10.30am – 4.30pm BSA Meeting Room, Imperial Wharf, London SW6 2PY An interactive workshop, facilitated by Professor Nick Fox http://www.shef.ac.uk/scharr/sections/ph/honorary/nick_fox… Read More ›
The Sociology of Intellectual Faddishness or, Why it’s unfair to blame everything on Foucault
We’ve hosted an ongoing argument here about the nature of sociology. Having initially been rather rude, Max Parkin offered what I thought was a perfectly reasonable response which I thought I’d reproduce here because, leaving aside the needless unpleasantness, it’s turned into… Read More ›
Women academic authors between 1665 and 2010
See this Chronicle of Higher Education report on the publishing patterns of female academic authors in the last three and a half centuries.
Top Ten Tips: Preparing to Publish
There’s a ton of advice out there for PhD students and ECRs on getting published, from choosing a journal to improving your academic writing. Here are my top tips for useful things to do BEFORE you start writing; so if… Read More ›
The Arrogance of Publishers vs. Academic Culture – Why the Outcome Is Virtually Certain
“Technologists also believe that publishing is transportable — anyone can be a publisher. All you need are some basic skills, access to a blogging platform, and some determination. While for certain forms of expression this can be true — this… Read More ›
Who reads poetry?
Jackie Kay of the Guardian argues the case of poetry in a lovely (if old) article. Perhaps she is right (even though I instinctively shudder at the sheer glance of something proudly entitled `Costa book awards’. It must be the… Read More ›
The Cool Kindle? On How (Not) to Sell E-Books
While wandering through a vast wasteland of over 200 cable channels the other night I happened across a BBC America marathon of Top Gear. While that show is in itself ripe for sociological analysis, what stopped me dead in my… Read More ›