tailieunhanh - Writing for Publication part 6

She worked as a contract researcher in a university before the shortage of academic jobs in 1980s Britain forced her into the civil service as a tax inspector. She subsequently launched herself on to the unsuspecting world of business schools as an accounting academic | The Business of Publishing 41 they are usually more honoured in the breach than in the observance and there will be many a slip twixt cup and lip. Eisenhower urged his generals to have a cunning plan and execute it ruthlessly but we don t think you can do that with publishing. So stay flexible and just make sure that the plan becomes something to help guide you in the right direction for you not a stick to beat yourself with. Here are some hints on how to plan for publication. Set yourself real deadlines for getting stuff done. One of the best ways of doing so is to commit to giving a conference paper - you have to at least do something that won t make you look stupid if you do this. Another good deadline technique is to work with others and mutually commit to deadlines. Most people will let themselves down before other people. If you are not like most people then this won t work for you of course. If you have something that you think will make a good journal paper then a classical genealogy for that would be to give the paper at one or more conferences get feedback and a feel for how if it works then write it up for publication. Think about the lead times that can be involved in publication. If you want promotion or are subject to a dreaded research review then don t think that you can start sending things to publishers six months before the crucial date. Try to develop a stream of work. Rebecca often gives colleagues the analogy of a production line in a factory - once you have built up a decent pace and are in the rhythm then the whole thing can become self-perpetuating with the finished goods rolling off the end of the conveyor belt. A steady flow of parallel work will ensure that there are no major peaks and troughs and if something does go pearshaped you know that there is always something else in the pipeline. Don t put all your publication eggs in one basket. That said do bear in mind that people at the start of their career will take some time to build up