Writers' Lab: On where PhD Research gets published

Recently, I was browsing the #phdchat hashtag, when I found a great question by @larkened :

As a PhD student, is it best to publish as much as possible even if in low impact factor journals? I'm being encouraged that way :s #phdchat

— louise (@larkened) November 25, 2013

I typically use a waterfall technique: I shoot for the publication in which I'd love my research to appear, and if that gets rejected, I try to submit elsewhere.

Admittedly, I don't always follow up so well. I have a paper sitting on my hard drive that got rejected in 2012, and I haven't come to the point to rework it yet. To my defense, I have to say that I wrote the paper for a special edition of a journal, aiming at comparing European and North-American practice, so I'm still in doubt as to where else it would fit. It's one of those looming tasks on my to-do list - and since it was my first rejection ever, it has some -ahum- emotional baggage on it.

Anyway, let's focus on what matters to PhD students who want to publish. (Read: you gotta publish, it's so important!):
Be bold.
Aim high.
Ditch the imposter crap.

I think aiming high might encourage you to go the extra mile (it does for me, at least, I figure that some people might see it as unmotivating to try and reach for that extra bit).

And here's the Storify that has excellent comments from more experienced researchers on this topic - absolutely worth reading:

What can the success of Malcolm Gladwell teach us about gaps in science outreach and communication?

I recently joined in a discussion on Twitter about how and why the books of Malcolm Gladwell fill a gap in science outreach. The questions remain open, and popularizing our research results might be a requirement on grant proposals that is left to the occasions in which we are invited to try and explain our findings to a broader public.

Nonetheless, these are valuable questions we should ask ourselves. For that reason, I'm glad to share this Storify here.

Why do you think is there a gap between science outreach and popular writing as by Gladwell?

Can Blogging add an Additional Dimension to Academic Publishing?

This post continues the ideas on blogging to tackle publication bias, and blogging for all academics.

As USC Rossier reacted on Twitter by wondering if blogging could overtake peer-reviewed journals, an interesting discussion followed. I storified it for your interest!

Storify of 3TU.Bouw kickoff

Storify on TEDxDelft

Check out the Storify I made on PhD Talk blogging for TEDxDelft!
It gives you an overview of how I experienced the day, from the night before to the day after.