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Post by aaaa on Sept 19, 2011 11:35:30 GMT -5
^ Don't worry - not all departments push you to write early and often. That does not necessarily correlate with quality. However, the general point stands - you need to get more writing out there, because due to oversupply of PhDs, departments are likely to be risk averse, and are likely to want people who show the ability/strong potential to publish. ^^ Sure, an encyclopedia entry should be quick, but that doesn't necessarily mean it will be quick to write. Maybe if it's a revision of your qualifying paper, but if not, then it could be a time suck. Plus it takes time away from working on something publishable. If our OP is already working on the dissertation, he or she likely has at least a conference paper to get ready for a journal submission, and to me the encyclopedia article writing is a distraction. Then again, if you (OP) want to start small, go with the encyclopedia, but hustle up and get something ready for journal submission next. Think of this first piece as practice, not the thing that gets you a job. Sure. I am not trying to create a universal law of encyclopedia publishing. But as someone who has written encyclopedia entries before, I just wanted to point out that the vast majority of them, especially the ones where graduate students are invited to write, are short and simple. In fact, the reason why encyclopedia entries are not valued by most research institutions is precisely because they are short and simple to write. As such, the notion that publishing an encyclopedia entry prevents one from writing actual peer reviewed articles is not true most times. In fact, often the lit review for the paper (or dissertation) will overlap sigificantly with the encyclopedia entry. My basic points being: 1- While encyclopedia entries are never, ever the same as a peer reviewed article, but they are not completely useless either, especially at smaller schools. 2- There is no reason why someone can't do their dissertation, peer reviewed articles, AND an encyclopedia entry at the same time. If someone is getting invited to write for an encyclopedia, it is presumably because they are working in the area of the specific encyclopedia entry, which presumably means more than a passing knowledge of the specific topic. If someone asked me to do an encyclopedia entry on 16th century East Asian literature, it would probably take me a long time to write anything because I would have to start a lit review from scratch. If someone asked me to write an entry on my specialty, it wouldn't take me long at all. That is where common sense comes in. I am merely pointing out that people in this thread were severely overestimating the average time needed to do an entry and underestimating the value they might have (and I know for a fact some of the smaller, teaching oriented schools even count them for merit raises, including some of the SUNY branches). The whole "don't write the entry, write a paper" advice is only valid if writing the entry prevents one from writing the paper, which in most cases is not true.
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Post by actually on Sept 19, 2011 12:37:16 GMT -5
In fact, the reason wIf someone is getting invited to write for an encyclopedia, it is presumably because they are working in the area of the specific encyclopedia entry, which presumably means more than a passing knowledge of the specific topic. Actually, if a grad student is being asked to write for an encyclopedia nowadays, chances are the editor is desperate to find people to write an entry for the $50 (or whatever) they're offered, has posted a cattle call to all of their contacts (specialty area or not), and a friend/colleague/adviser thought it would be a quick way for that person to pad their CV a little and forwarded on the generic email. I doubt many folks are asked to write X entry for the encyclopedia based on their research specialty, especially as a grad student with no prior published research. Rather they are told to select from the 200 entries on the list that are left over after the editor's friends chose their pet entries, some of which may or may not overlap with their research.
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Post by aaaaa on Sept 19, 2011 13:07:44 GMT -5
In fact, the reason wIf someone is getting invited to write for an encyclopedia, it is presumably because they are working in the area of the specific encyclopedia entry, which presumably means more than a passing knowledge of the specific topic. Actually, if a grad student is being asked to write for an encyclopedia nowadays, chances are the editor is desperate to find people to write an entry for the $50 (or whatever) they're offered, has posted a cattle call to all of their contacts (specialty area or not), and a friend/colleague/adviser thought it would be a quick way for that person to pad their CV a little and forwarded on the generic email. I doubt many folks are asked to write X entry for the encyclopedia based on their research specialty, especially as a grad student with no prior published research. Rather they are told to select from the 200 entries on the list that are left over after the editor's friends chose their pet entries, some of which may or may not overlap with their research. Well, yes. I presumed that "invited" meant "invited" and not "I got a mass email asking for volunteers." In any case, the point is the same. As long as the person has more than just a passing knowledge of the field of the entry, it shouldn't take long to write it. (And just in case it needs to be spelled out: no, do not volunteer to write stuff on topics that are completely outside your field/specialty).
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Post by Assist Prof on Oct 10, 2011 10:38:28 GMT -5
Dear Soc Grad,
It seems that all the answers provided to you were in the context of R1 jobs. Unfortunately, there are a limited amount of R1 positions out there and you asked about colleges and Universities, so I am going to assume that you are interested in more than R1 institutions.
My suggestion is to concentrate on getting a peer reviewed journal article in addition to the encyclopedia articles. There are many MA level institutions that value this type of writing, however you also need to demonstrate that you can publish a peer reviewed article. That said the ency articles will sway in your favor in many MA level institutions. There is another benefit to these and chapters-they are seen as service to the discipline, which is important in rounding out your CV. Schools want to hire someone that will ultimately earn tenure and tenure is rarely based just on research, or just on research and teaching. Service is an important part of the package and demonstrating this in your CV can be a plus in your column.
So, if you are only after an R1 position than ency articles probably won't get you what you want, but for all else there is a benefit. So do them and get a peer review as well. Good Luck!
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Post by socgrad on Oct 10, 2011 18:46:52 GMT -5
Dear Assist Prof, Thank you for your thoughtful and encouraging response. I am probably not going to be aiming for R1's. I won't be on the market until next fall, but I suspect that I will still be in this mindset at that point. I am working on my dissertation and I hope to carve out a couple of articles that I can send out for review well before I go on the market, too, in addition to the ency article. Thanks! socgrad
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Post by Nene on Oct 4, 2012 19:51:45 GMT -5
If your goal is R1 or nothing, don't do it. But that's a foolish goal, and is likely to lead to a lot of pain and disappointment in life.
If you can write it in a week or less, I see no compelling reason not to do it. The odds of anyone getting an R1 job are slim anyway. Everywhere else, it's better to have something in print than nothing. Most teaching schools will give you some credit for encyclopedia articles and book reviews.
My personal opinion, which should not affect your strategy in the least, is that the peer-review fetish is overblown, given that most third-rank and lower sociology journals are full of utter crap. Peer-reviewed crap. I'd rather write a good encyclopedia article than a lot of the garbage found in those journals. But that's just me.
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