The IMISCOE PhD Academy addresses questions raised by our current cohort of members, and we started 2025 off with an interactive discussion on ‘Succeeding with publishing peer-reviewed journal articles: Lived experiences of failure and success’.
Within the current model of scientific knowledge production, publishing in peer-reviewed journals is a pivotal aspect of academic life – for quality assurance, peer exchange, and knowledge sharing.
This is also relevant for Doctoral researchers, not least those wishing to pursue an academic career. Despite the wealth of information on how to publish, recent discussions on ‘shadow CV’s’ and how to deal with rejection, much knowledge about the process of publishing in peer reviewed academic journals is quite implicit, tacit, and can be hard to access for early career scholars.
This was therefore the rationale for our January 2025 session, aiming to explore various journeys of failure and success, in the publication process. The session consisted of examples of personal stories of both challenges and victories, in order to demystify academic publishing and provide participants with hopefully realistic expectations.
The three contributions starting the session off were presented by Marta, who focused on practical aspects of publishing and the know-how that we acquire with experience, and offering her reflections on why is academic publishing remains important not just for academic careers but also for society. Cosmin focused on overcoming publication challenges and the role of resilience in building an academic career. He did this by generously offering detailed accounts of several article’s publishing history, including his first article published while completing his PhD, engaging with issues of journal choice, disciplinary differences, and managing priorities.
Finaly, we were very fortunate to be joined by one of the Editors of International Migration, Aysen Üstübici who both discussed personal experiences of publication trajectories toward publication – including examples of well-functioning and supportive peer review, but also reflecting on epistemic injustice as something migration scholars cannot avoid recognising. She then offered very helpful advice and tips from a journal editor’s point of view, for early career researchers, including those submitting their very first article to a journal.
The session included a discussion using a ‘padlet’ and engaged lively exchange and sharing among the IMISCOE PhD Academy members participating. This included questions such as: How can we decide where to submit? For example, should we try to publish both in migration journals and disciplinary ones? Should we always “aim high” if there is a thematic and methodological fit or are there other considerations? Is it a good idea to publish multiple times in the same journals or not? Are there ways to try to speed up the publication process? When is it appropriate to contact editors? How can we publish the dissertation as a book and, at the same, also publish in refereed journals, while avoiding self-plagiarism?