The Center’s research seminars and scholar programs often lead to significant publication outcomes (in addition to informing practices on participants’ home campuses), so we routinely update this page to support our participants’ writing goals and those of other SoTL scholars.

Understanding the Publishing Process for Book-Length Projects (A CEL Blog Series)

As we’ve worked with authors and editors in both Center for Engaged Learning book series, we’ve identified frequently asked questions about publishing books. This post offers a general overview of the process.

What’s the process for publishing a (SoTL) book?

The Center for Engaged Learning produces two book series on engaged learning and teaching – one in partnership with Stylus Publishing and one that’s open access and supports books that experiment with genre or medium in ways that take advantage…

Academic book publishing: What happens during copyediting?

This post is the second installment of CEL’s series on the process of academic book publishing. We are demystifying the process of how your research becomes a final product. If you missed our first post, check out Jessie Moore on…

Because we've taken time to prioritize our feedback — and to piece together the jigsaw — we share only a fraction of the comments we've made while reading. After all, we're not the author. We're not revising the text. Instead, we're helping the author consider how they can revise to most effectively engage their audience and achieve their purpose.

Academic book publishing: What happens during developmental editing?

“developmental editing. Editorial intervention, usually at an early stage, to help the author with structure, substance, or other fundamental elements of a manuscript. Compare with copyediting and line editing.” Peter Ginna, What Editors Do, p. 278 The Center for Engaged Learning produces two…

Academic Book Publishing: Typesetting

Welcome to another post in our series on the process of academic book publishing! We’re taking you through all the steps, from writing and submitting your proposal, working with your editor on the development of your manuscript, and having your book copyedited. In…

Two new book cover designs for Writing about Learning and Teaching, with bright and colorful artwork

Academic Book Publishing: Cover Design

There is little in the book production process that creates as much excitement (and often, disagreement) as the design of the book cover. Every author wants a cover that conveys their enthusiasm for the content within, a cover that communicates…

New Open Access Book: Writing about Learning and Teaching in Higher Education

Now available in our Open Access Series Writing about Learning and Teaching in Higher Education Creating and Contributing to Scholarly Conversations across a Range of Genres by Mick Healey, Kelly E. Matthews, and Alison Cook-Sather Writing about Learning and Teaching…

Considering Ethical Strategies for Collaborative Writing

Who is an author? Typically…

  • Group members who have made substantial conceptual contributions to the publication
  • Group members who have participated in data collection, analysis, or interpretation of the data
  • Group members who contribute significant drafting, revising, and/or editing

Different group members can take the lead on different presentation/publication goals, so discuss timelines and expectations for group members often. Include authorship discussions – preferably in the context of personal and professional goals – as part of your planning. In “Working with Coauthors,” Ann Nevin, Jacqueline Thousand, and Richard Villa highlight the importance not only of setting shared goals, but also of being attentive to individual goals:

Each coauthor needs to honestly share any individual goals. One author may have a personal goal of getting the product completed within the shortest amount of time; another may have as a goal to produce the most polished document that will have the greatest possibility of being accepted by a top internationally respected peer-reviewed journal. One author may be motivated to reach a researcher audience, while another may want to reach a practitioner audience. Goal conversations can spare coauthors from experiencing the distress that can occur when unspoken agendas, that is, hidden agendas, are not shared.

Nevin, Thousand, and Villa 2010, p. 280

Understanding these individual goals can help shape agreements about who might take leadership roles (and be listed as first author) on different publications. They also can guide conversations about how to acknowledge collaborators across publications. For example, you might agree to:

  • List everyone who collected and/or analyzed data on every publication and promote active writers in the author order, listing remaining members alphabetically; or
  • List everyone who collected and/or analyzed data on every publication and promote active writers in the author order, listing remaining members in reverse alphabetical order; or
  • Alternate between these strategies so that someone’s last name does not consistently position them first (or last) among the alphabetical listings; or
  • List everyone who collected and/or analyzed data on every publication, listing members in an agreed upon order that accounts for collective publication needs/individual goals.

Here are a few examples:

  • For one multi-institutional project, co-authors who take the lead on drafting, revising, and editing a manuscript are listed first, and most remaining co-authors are listed alphabetically after those lead authors. The team’s statistician is listed last.
  • In a smaller collaborative team, junior colleagues who need publications for promotion are listed first, since team members typically contribute fairly evenly to the research and writing processes.
  • For publications related to the Center’s work, the director’s and executive director’s names often are listed last (and only if they contributed to a publication) so that the Center’s leaders for a topic area (e.g., undergraduate research, global learning, etc.) are better positioned for name recognition within the associated scholarly community.

Since individual goals and professional careers change over time, teams should revisit their shared goals and expectations regularly.

Learning and Teaching Journals

The following journals publish research on learning and teaching:

This list is not exhaustive; please email suggestions. Also see the SoTL Journal List maintained by the Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of Central Florida.

Learning and Teaching Book Series

The Center for Engaged Learning is home to two book series:

Both series offer supplemental resources on the Center’s website.

Reference

Nevin, Ann I., Jacqueline S. Thousand, and Richard A. Villa. 2010. “Working with Coauthors.” In the Handbook of Scholarly Writing and Publishing, edited by Tonette S. Rocco, Tim Hatcher, and Associates, 274-292. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.