Job Discussion Forums

[HLJHLJ]

Not all journals are equal, it's perfectly possible to self publish Psychology and EFL papers in a lesser journal without having a university affiliation. You will likely just have to accept a lower impact factor. If you are publishing work you did while you were studying (e.g. your Masters thesis), or work related to it, pretty much all universities will give you honorary affiliation for publication purposes anyway. I've never heard of anyone being refused.

In any case the requirement is that you have either done some research or have a demonstrable theory, a teaching position is largely irrelevant.

[Glenski]

[G Cthulhu]

[OneJoelFifty]

[Glenski]

G Cthulhu,
The way I read your post, you seem to be talking about 2 things.

1. Sound papers do get published. (unless they are written horribly, of course, and as an editor, I've seen my share)

2. Yes, not every published paper is a stellar example of academic research. (this seems to agree with OneJoelFifty). I agree. I think we see more presentations like this than we do articles, though, IMO. It depends on the publication, of course. Not all are peer reviewed or blind-review vetted.

On this latter point, publications called "proceedings" are often not very well respected by universities, because they don't often get strict review. They end up being more like "Hey, presenters, just fire us off a quickie article, and unless it has some major grammatical flaws, we'll take it 'as is', so it's a gimme." Therefore, those (and articles published in one's own university bulletin (kiyo) get fewer points in a hiring process or promotional review.

[G Cthulhu]

[G Cthulhu]

[G Cthulhu]

sry, dbl post

[Glenski]

[HLJHLJ]

Sorry, but I'm inclined to agreed with Cthulhu. I've found the standards to be shockingly low in most ESL/EFL journals. It's only the very top journals in any field that have paid staff, most are kept afloat by volunteers, or they may have one paid administrator.

For the most part EFL teachers, including those are Universities, are under qualified and lack solid academic research experience. There is no culture of academic development, if there is any professional development at all, it is usually focused on practical workshops.

In other fields I have worked in the whole department is usually research active. There are weekly in house seminars where staff discuss their research. Current copies of the top journals are available in the staff room and people read them. Colleagues will email round the department with interesting or unusual papers they come across.

When a new junior member of staff arrives, they find an area that interests them and get mentored by someone in that research group. Initially they'll help out with other people's research and gradually build up a portfolio of their own. On the job training if you like.

When research and publishing are seen as an integral part of the job, reading journals and keeping up to date with current research happens naturally. You can't do your job properly if you don't do it. Reviewing articles is part of that, and whilst many people see it as a chore, they still do it, because you have to (unless you have a PhD student you can 'delegate it to).

If the general atmosphere that makes it clear that 'this is a place where research happens' is missing, the rest of the process falls apart. It seems to be missing in most EFL departments.

[Glenski]

[HLJHLJ]

[Glenski]

[HLJHLJ]

[Glenski]