Communication vs Validation: Why are you publishing?

As an academic, it’s not enough to write. You need to publish your writing. Although those publications are important in hiring, promotion, and other processes, the primary reason you publish is to communicate ideas. Publishing, from the latin 'publicare', means to 'make public'. You do that in several different ways and perhaps for several different audiences, within and beyond the academy. This posts discusses the sometimes difficult and often overwhelming process of figuring out the relationship between you, your audience and your writing.BOOKS!Two of my Short Guides are related to this post. The Scholarly Writing Process goes into more detail about how your orientation shifts from satisfying your own curiosity, to writing for a specific audience as you develop a piece of writing (or more than one piece of writing from the same research project). Scholarly Publishing helps you use this approach to make decisions about how to publish a particular piece with specific attention to how your communication goals relate to the validation processes you are also concerned with. Both are available as e-books or paperbacks and contain questions to help you figure out what’s right for you. Links below:Click to browse my Short Guides in most e-Book formats: books2read.com/ap/8pKOpn/Jo-VanEveryOr buy the paperbacks: bookshop.org/contributors/jo-vaneverySUPPORT!If you would like personal support figuring out a writing and publishing strategy, my Wayfinding service(jovanevery.co.uk/wayfinding) is a good choice. I can help you figure out who you want to communicate with and how that relates to the specific concerns you have about validation right now and in the medium term. I can also help you prioritise the projects you have and figure out who can provide the support you need to feel confident enough to submit things.Read the post here: jovanevery.co.uk/communication-validation-publishingFollow me on Twitter: twitter.com/JoVanEveryFind my Facebook Page here: facebook.com/JoVEAcademicCareerCoachJoin the Academic Writing Studio: academicwritingstudio.co.ukImage by Joshua Earle via UnsplashFor more advice, support and perspectives like this, sign up to my free monthly newsletter: https://jovanevery.co.uk/newsletter To find out how short chunks of time can revolutionise your writing, take the FREE 15 Minute Writing Challenge course: https://jovanevery.co.uk/15-min-writing-challenge/ Or join the Academic Writing Studio community: https://academicwritingstudio.co.uk  Support me on KoFi here: https://ko-fi.com/jovanevery  I'm no longer on Twitter, but I'm on Bluesky here: https://bsky.app/profile/jovanevery.bsky.social Find me on Linked In here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jovanevery/  Or follow along on Facebook here: https://facebook.com/JoVEAcademicCareerCoach