What Is the Role of Graduate Student Journals in the Publish-or-Perish Academy? Three Lessons from Three Editors-in-Chief

Abstract

To be prepared to face the “publish-or-perish” reality of contemporary academia, early career scholars must develop capacity and confidence. While the publication practices of International Relations have received increasing attention in the last 20 years, concern remains around the preparedness of graduate students to participate confidently and competently in the publication process. As three former Editors-in-Chief of a graduate student journal, we suggest that student-run journals can play an important role in professionalization during graduate school. We then reflect on our journal’s context as well as on reforms initiated to improve the policies and practices during our editorial tenure. Bringing our experiences to bear on previous findings in the literature, we outline three key lessons that can help support successful journals at other institutions. First, given the high turnover rate, starting early is key to maintain early enthusiasm and flatten intensity spikes. Second, editors must remain mindful of what we call the ‘workload paradox’—or how the comparatively low workload of some graduate journals can make it harder to manage an editorial team. Finally, we argue that graduate student journals should be understood as places of learning and primarily valued as professionalization and pedagogical spaces.

Can active learning be asynchronous? Implementing online peer review assignments in undergraduate political science and international relations courses

“…While prior research has discussed how online discussion forums can break down these barriers and contribute to active learning (King et al 2021 ), we were interested in developing a new method that would create space for deep engagement on fellow students’ work. This is not to deny the potential utility of discussion boards in some online circumstances—and indeed, some of the courses involved in this study incorporated discussion boards—but instead a call to recognize that participating in the peer review process can be a uniquely constructive experience for students (Arsenault et al 2021 ; Walker et al 2021 ). As Andrew and Michael began to prepare for their Fall 2020 semester courses, they considered how the rich exchange of ideas present in the academic peer review process might be replicated within the context of a course.…”

Advancing the student‐oriented model of academic publishing: The case of legal studies in Hong Kong

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“…396–402). Skills that have been repeatedly stated in the literature and are indeed acquired by student editors include communication, collaboration, and leadership skills (e.g., Arsenault et al, 2021; Cox & Kent, 2018; Garbati & Brockett, 2018). Other skills, such as recruitment and personnel management, financial budgeting, project management, and marketing and publicity, ‘are as useful for practice as a solicitor as they are within academia’, and are indeed prominent motivations and pedagogical functions of student‐oriented legal publications (MacPherson & Peterson, 2017).…”

The master of arts in applied linguistics graduates’ perceptions on the program and their competencies

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