whats your publication strategy

[strategist]

I hear a lot of different rules of thumb-

you should have at least two/three/four things under review at all times; you should be working on twice as many solo-authored publications as co-authored; 1-2-1: one conference submission, two manuscript submissions, and one R&R at all times..

I am wondering if there are strategies you try to follow or just try to do the best job possible.

[tactician]

Four things under review seems like too much. I'm lucky if I have one thing under review at any time. However, I've never gotten a rejection. Further, I've reviewed a lot of shitty manuscripts that have gotten rejections. My rule of thumb is: do your best work, don't be anxious about numbers.

[NewAsst]

Four things under review is not too many. At one point last year I had 6 papers under review, and all of them were eventually accepted. The important thing is to send them to the right venue. Two were good, two were descent, and two were papers that I wanted to publish for tenure/productivity reasons.

As for the original question, I like to have at least three papers out at any time. Because of the crunch of the semester, the recent pattern has been to send them out in clusters (e.g., once the fall semester wrapped up I sent out three papers). Now, I may send one out over the course of the spring semester, but wouldn't be surprised if I wait until summer and send out another 3 or 4.

[morethan4isBS]

I agree with tactician, quality of work matters more than quantity. If you do good work, the pubs will come. I find it highly suspect that one could have more than 4 high quality pubs out at any given point...

security check: that's right

[strategist]

When I look at the CV of the assistant profs in my department, a few of them appear to have more than four articles under review. Granted, this may not be an accurate representation of where they actually are but i wouldn't call it BS. Some subfields, crime and health come to mind, often have shorter word counts for articles.

[jo momma]

Having more than four articles under review is common since the review process and publication lag is so long for most journals. When making a plan, you need to make sure if your department cares about impact factors and publishing outside of sociology. One must also decide if they are going to stay with mosty one area of expertise or branch out to different substantive topics. I personally like greater diversity of topics, but some folks prefer greater specializing.