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)

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Academic Book Publishing: Formatting Your Manuscript

I can hear many of you authors out there collectively groaning, or perhaps you are putting off actually formatting your manuscript as you look for advice to make it all seem easier. It’s true, formatting your manuscript for submission can…

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Inclusive Writing for International Audiences

Using inclusive language makes your audiences feel welcome and respected, reduces distraction for the reader, and maintains your (and our!) credibility. The books in our Open Access Book Series are downloaded by readers across the world, so we pay particular…

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Searching for SoTL Literature

60-Second SoTL – Episode 35 This week’s episode features an article from the open-access journal, Teaching & Learning Inquiry, and examines strategies for conducting a literature search for scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) projects: Healey, Mick, and Ruth L. Healey. 2023. “Searching…

Haphazard stacks of books cover a table. An overlay reads, "60-Second SoTL: SoTL Literature Reviews."

SoTL Literature Reviews

60-Second SoTL – Episode 36 This week’s episode features an article from the open-access journal, Teaching & Learning Inquiry, and examines strategies for writing a literature review on scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL): Healey, Mick, and Ruth Healey. 2023. “Reviewing the Literature on…

Arrows showing timeline for steps in the book publication process.

Timelines for Publishing an Academic Book: Why Does It Take So Long? 

Creating an academic book from start to finish can be quite a long journey—we’re talking about years here. Most authors and editors are prepared for this, but it can come as an unpleasant surprise to some. In this post, I’ll…

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Writing Stylishly in SoTL: The Gospel According to Helen Sword

There is endless advice out there on how to write well. Some of this advice seems universal, and some of it varies a great deal, depending on the audience, purpose, and context for your writing. Academic writing brings its own…

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.