The band with the tractor drum kit

By Gordon Rugg

If you’ve ever wanted to see a band with a tractor drum kit, accompanied by the Red Army Choir and Russian dancers in full national costume, performing “Delilah,” then here’s your chance…

The inimitable Leningrad Cowboys, poker faced as ever (unlike the dancers, who are clearly having the time of their lives, and who are also clearly trying very hard not to laugh).

 

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The Myth of Business Efficiency

By Gordon Rugg

There’s a widespread belief that the public sector has much to learn from business, in terms of efficiency. There’s also a widespread belief that Bigfoot exists. One of these beliefs has some correspondence with reality, and has a fair chance of making the world a better place; it’s not the one about business efficiency…

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Images from Wikipedia; full credits at the end of this article.

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Academic Publishing: understanding the options

Guest Post by Daniel O’Neill

Publishing research can be puzzling for beginners. This article looks at academic publishing from the point of view of a PhD researcher.

Publishing for the Researcher

I undertake research in construction and surveying. I wouldn’t describe myself as a veteran publisher of research. I knew nothing about publishing five years ago, and what I now know is limited in comparison to more seasoned researchers. I am currently writing my fourth paper from my PhD. I have written many magazine articles outside of my academic writing. The magazine articles were easy to write. I find it easy to write in an active and informal style. Articles are relatively easy to publish as websites and magazines seek and need free, mediocre to good material for publications. The researcher wants to attract attention to what they know, or what they are researching, and the website or magazine wants free content, or in some cases a fee is paid. The serious, formal, academic papers are more difficult to publish.

Options: Journals and Conferences

There are two options in publishing research papers, firstly publishing in a journal, secondly publishing at a conference. The journal route offers you a chance to present your research in an international journal. If you are interested in the process of publishing in academic journals, Abby Day’s book “How to Get Research Published in Journals” is a great read for beginners and experienced researchers alike. Generally, top publishers do not let the public free access to the online journals, but they will allow restricted access and some free samples. The publishers sell papers online: per issue or per paper. The price varies depending on publication, and popularity. To purchase one paper online can cost around €25 to €32 (approximation).

There is normally a long lead-in time for publishing in a journal. This is due to the number of papers being submitted. Journals publish a number of issues a year: annuals (common in esoteric areas), four, five, six or even ten issues. Depending on the reviewers’ requests for changes and corrections it is common to wait over a year to get published; however, there are calls for papers, when an issue with a specific theme is being published. The journals retain the rights to your material allowing the publisher to publish in an issue; unless you purchase the rights in which case it is openly available online. Publishers may also allow you to publish your own pre-publication version online. See the publishers’ copyright rules online for more detailed information. You will possibly read about ‘Green Access’ and ‘Gold Access’.

The process is not as basic as I have previously described and Day’s book goes into the process in detail. The publisher wants the journal to make money. The author wants their research exposed to the audience. The readers want to obtain information, more precisely cutting-edge research in their field, or they are looking at moving into another field of research and they are looking for samples. There are a number of players on the publisher’s side: the editor of the journal, assistant editors, the reviewers, and publishing support staff. The journal has to earn a profit, and be deemed a high quality publication in order for the reader to desire its information and purchase it, and for writers to want to publish in it. The idea of this is reasonable. Everybody gets something from the first viewing, the writer, the reader, the publisher. The top journals in my disciplines (construction and surveying) have a lot of papers sent to them, there is strong supply, and those not deemed suitable are rejected, and the authors go to another journal, possibly a lesser known publication. However some authors aim for a specific journal due to its readership – maybe experts and professionals in a specific field.

Conferences are great platforms to get “live” feedback from your research findings. When you present at a conference, you generally showcase what you have done in front of other researchers. The crowd can be as small as twenty and as big as a few thousand. Conferences are held all over the world. Journals are generally cheaper than conferences when it comes to publishing your research. Regarding conferences, this cost does not take into account travel to the location, accommodation and food. Lots of conferences have a conference dinner. This is usually lavish, with a three or four course meal, and after dinner entertainment; not forgetting other minor meals and drinks. This extravagance adds significantly to the cost. Conferences give people a chance to interact with each other, network with possible future employers and discuss the research being presented.

I have been thinking of the process of publishing material recently, as I have papers I would like to publish. The cheapest and most effortless answer is to publish it on an online platform for no direct cost (unreasonable/bad idea); however this would not get my research to the general public (researchers and professionals in construction and surveying) that have interest in it, as very few people would specifically search online for my research, but would go to a specified location such as a conference or journal website for such research. This is the card conference organisers and journals have that make them required – they offer you a platform, an outlet, at a significant financial cost in the case of conferences to you the author! The main reason an author would want to go to a conference is to get their research published; some want the extravagant dinner, and the entertainment also, and that’s fine too!

The ‘Reality’

There are people however, who just want to get their research published on a familiar and popular platform. As I have stated journals and conferences can be expensive, specifically for a postgraduate student with a lot of material to publish. The cost of £650 plus, if you have to travel and stay, for a conference might not be much to an established university professor, with a good income, and one paper to publish. However, it may be a considerable sum for a researcher on a scholarship or those self-funded, with four to six papers to publish. I think there should be a recognised alternative. I have been reading a lot about open access and other alternatives, and the models behind them, but I have not found a replacement for the traditional options. It is a time of great discussion in the academic world with regards the best model for publishing. It is difficult to say what would be best for the authors, academic readers, the general public, publishers. There are many sub-areas in this article which could be developed into more detailed articles. I have briefly discussed the traditional options here. The books below cover academic publishing in greater detail. Links are given below to articles on publishing. Do some further reading before deciding where to publish your research.

Daniel O’Neill is a PhD graduate, with academic research interests in construction. His PhD was on the retrofit of local authority housing.

Links and references

Read more about publishing in academic journals in Abby Day’s:

How to Get Research Published in Journals:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Get-Research-Published-Journals/dp/0566088150/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1436284354&sr=1-1&keywords=abby+day+journals

There’s more about the realities of a PhD in this by book by Gordon Rugg & Marian Petre:

The Unwritten Rules of PhD Research:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Unwritten-Rules-Research-Study-Skills/dp/0335237029/ref=dp_ob_image_bk

Recommended articles:

http://www.publishingtechnology.com/2015/01/five-predictions-for-academic-publishing-in-2015/

http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/blog/2013/oct/21/open-access-myths-peter-suber-harvard

Truthiness, scienciness, and product success

By Gordon Rugg

This is a Tempest Prognosticator.

800px-Tempest_Prognosticator“Tempest Prognosticator” by Badobadop – Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tempest_Prognosticator.jpg#/media/File:Tempest_Prognosticator.jpg

It’s a splendid example of nineteenth century ingenuity, right down to the name. What does it do? It’s intended to let you know if a storm is approaching. The way it does this is as wonderfully nineteenth century as the name. The Prognosticator is operated by twelve leeches, each of which lives in a bottle. When storms are approaching, the leeches become agitated, and climb out of the bottle. When they climb out, they disturb a piece of whalebone, which activates a bell. The more serious the risk of storm, the more leeches climb out, and the more bells ring.

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