Top 10 Suggestions on Publishing Journal Articles

1
Top 10 Suggestions on Publishing Journal Articles

• Plan your success and have confidence
• regardless of your appointment, your research
  output will likely be the single largest
  determinant in the tenure decision
• set short- and long-term objectives (start with
  the end in mind)
• recognize everyone has to start somewhere
• develop a risk seeking attitude
• overcome perfectionist tendencies
• reviews are idiosyncratic stick with it!

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Top 10 Suggestions on Publishing Journal Articles

• 2) Work in large numbers (manage your pipeline)
• typical paper takes 3-5 years to publish, whereas
  the typical tenure decision is made in 5-7 years
• start early, submit often
• publish your dissertation!
• keep a list of paper ideas
• leverage work with undergrad and grad students,
  but dont count on it you are responsible for
  your own success
• deans can count

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Top 10 Suggestions on Publishing Journal Articles

• 3) Take a portfolio perspective
• balance high-risk papers/outlets with low-risk
  papers/outlets
• balance the risk/return trade-off
• many departments expect you to have one or more
  papers that are AJAE or higher

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Top 10 Suggestions on Publishing Journal Articles

• 4) Develop a thick skin
• reviews are fair on average
• if a journal acceptance rate is 10-20 you can do
  the math
• turn rejected papers around quickly
• reviews are very idiosyncratic dont waste your
  time
• comments from reviewers on my papers
• this paper reminds me of a large number of
  Jayson Lusk papers I have read. It seems to be
  an attempt to re-package some points elsewhere,
  and make them sound more fundamental and serious
  than they are
• this is a conceptual mess
• the motivation of the paper provides a loose and
  self-serving review of the literature
• are you selling soap, or doing science here?
• this paper is a mess of poor motivation and poor
  execution
• the paper . . . is severely hampered by its lack
  of a true economic question
• The number of misspelled author names both in
  the text and in the references is insulting and
  inexcusable. . . . these names sound like names
  of well-known marketing academics that none of my
  PhD students could possibly misspell.
• The following two comments were received on the
  same paper
• portions of the paper read very poorly
• I found the paper to be very well written and
  researched

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Top 10 Suggestions on Publishing Journal Articles

• 5) Do your homework
• know how to market your paper
• read and cite the relevant literature
• know how your paper fits into the literature
• you should be very careful about say things like
  this is the first paper to . . .
• what is your contribution?
• clearly identify your contribution
• make a compelling case for your paper
• be careful not to oversell
• use good papers as role models

6
Top 10 Suggestions on Publishing Journal Articles

• Judiciously choose co-authors
• people you like/respect
• individuals with different comparative advantages
• dont let the 3rd or 4th author hold you up

7
Top 10 Suggestions on Publishing Journal Articles

• 7) Allocate and protect time for research
• teaching/extension will dominate your time if you
  let it
• responding to emails will dominate your time if
  you let it
• should you spend more time on your research?
  (nights/weekends?)
• prioritize your research
• quickly complete revise and resubmits

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Top 10 Suggestions on Publishing Journal Articles

• 8) Get and use feedback from others
• correspond with stars in the profession
• thoroughly and effectively respond to reviewers
• even bad reviewers usually have one or two
  useful comments
• good reviewers have many useful comments
• ask others to read your papers before you submit
  to journals
• dont expect high quality feedback from meetings
  presentations use meetings to network

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Top 10 Suggestions on Publishing Journal Articles

• 9) Realize publishing is a dynamic game
• the editor that rejects one paper is the same
  editor that might accept your next
• it is always disappointing to have a paper
  rejected dont take it out on the editor
• that said, you are the only one who will stand up
  for your academic contributions
• implement a policy of waiting a week until
  responding to editors/reviewers
• practice the Golden Rule in reviewing

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Top 10 Suggestions on Publishing Journal Articles

• 10) Have fun!
• publish with a purpose
• some purposes are self-serving
• self gratification/ego
• Hilmer and Hilmer (AJAE, 2005) show for
  agricultural economics professors that each
  additional research article increases salary from
  0.5 to 1
• Golden et al. (RAE, 2006) shows that for each
  publication, an agricultural economics professor
  salary increases roughly 200/year
• Swidler and Goldreyer (JF, 1998) find that,
  depending on professorial rank, the present value
  of the first top finance journal article
  published is between 19,493 and 33,754
• other purposes are loftier