Publishing, Journals, Online-only, When Demand is Greater than Supply

1. The problem is not online vs. printed journals (with online availability). It is about journals with known standards. If you get together the top 25 people who publish in a field, and they decide to publish mainly in a single venue (online, offline, ...), after a while the journal will be recognized for its quality. Of course, you still need peer review and serious editing.

2. I am not sure if diversity is affected much by any of these journal innovations. If you have double-blind reviewing, such blindness might hurt those with big reputations when they submit weaker work.

3. I would not worry much about whether the article has appeared as long as it is accepted and scheduled to appear. The delay, say six months, is unlikely to affect reputation or impact for those coming up for tenure and promotion. You need to have things out for several years before impact can be measured.

4. There is a crucial message for probationary faculty: Make sure you send out papers to the journals as early in your career as sensible. Your dissertation's output is likely to be ready to be sent out after your first year or 18 months after the degree. And your next project should have publishable outputs by the end of year three or at most year four. The idea is to give yourself time to rebound from rejections and resubmit, having perhaps improved the paper. This means that you must respond to revise-and-resubmits with an improved paper without delay.  And it also means that journal editors need to give reviewers deadlines (?two months) , and if the review is not received, have other reviewers in mind. Reviewers who are always tardy should be avoided.

5. We might also ask ourselves if we are crowding out important work  by publishing our work when it is not as polished as it should be. I cannot imagine anyone who would not try to publish, but perhaps editors need to ask authors for stronger papers. I am not sure this is possible.  

6. More importantly, if we ask that tenure, promotion, and full-professor reviews demand a certain number of papers in the main journals, I believe the numbers will prove that is almost impossible given the number of papers published vs the number of papers that need to be published if people are to be awarded tenure or promotion. What happens is that departments, deans, and provosts discover that their rules are followed in the breach. Put differently, I suspect that in the past and likely in the future, schools talk demanding standards but must not honor them if they are to have any regular faculty. Surely some people perform much better, but again the problem is that the cohort of reasonably strong people may face more demand than there is supply.  Is this observation just wrong? I could imagine a dean or provost saying, "We understand the constraints. But we want just those faculty who are able to thrive under such a regime."

Not Just On Thursday

. . .finding thankfulness in everyday. . .so much of our misery is rooted in ingratitude. Most of the time, even in the bleakest of circumstances, all it takes is a little refocusing and we can become thankful. . . 

but you don't see how demanding my job is;

yes but you are employed and are a unique contributor 

but you don't see how hectic and crazy home life is with kids;

yes, but you wanted and prayed for children, and they are a blessing

my husband lacks in so many areas, it's nearly impossible to love him;

I understand, but surely if you dig deep enough you will find value in him

living with chronic illness is extremely depressing;

yes, surely I can relate, but you are still living so you have a purpose

I'm tired of living "pay check to pay check";

I can see that, but you have a choice in the matter

I wish I had nicer things and a bigger house;

I can relate, but I am reminded that anything that can be bought, is 

pretty worthless anyway

I'm not in the spotlight, people don't know me;

but God not only sees you, He knows you

I didn't accomplish all I wanted to during the week;

goodness me, but what did you accomplish and who is keeping track?

I don't have enough friends;

I say start small and redirect your focus on the friend/s you do have

I have such a small family, I'm bitter because it's not bigger;

yes, but do you have family?

There is so much I want to do that I haven't;

well do you believe in dreams?

You don't see how lonely I am;

maybe not, but have you tried anything new?

But I don't have what she has;

ok, but what do you have?

Most of my life it's been a battle to remain thankful. So much of my life, like many, has not gone the way I imagined, hoped or envisioned. So much of life's pain has been thrown at me. It's a fight, but I have refused to let bitterness and resentments stick around for too long. Oh they make my heart heavy! I gladly replace those two with thankfulness and gratitude. When we find those living in our hearts instead of bitterness and resentment, we are lighter. We have a more open mind and heart. 

We become a more easy come, easy go person. 

We don't continue to hold on to what is keeping us from ingratitude.

We accept that in this life, we will not get what we want a lot of the time. We will be thrown curve balls. We will deal with hurts. And at times it will be torture. But if we stay on top of our hearts position amidst these times, I truly believe we will see and experience life differently. But it does take some work on our part to gain new perspectives. Let's face it, it can be effort to see good in this life. Sad, but true. 

The minute I take what's holding me down--and blocking gratitude--which is usually bitterness of some sort--I feel like I'm made new. I feel like I'm then operating out of the person I was made to be. The beauty of this is anyone can do it! Prisoners, soldiers, the dying, the living, anyone.

What, in your heart, can you turn around this Thursday?  I love the holiday, but thanksgiving needs to be in our hearts every single day! Not just once a year should we focus on being thankful. I surely know where my heart needs pruning. Come to think of it, I need to go find those shears.