In March and April 2021 the MIGREC project held its first Publishing Seminar on the theme ‘What to expect: understanding the international academic publication process’. The seminar was led by ELIAMEP team members of MIGREC, Drs. Ioannis Armakolas and Julianne Funk, who are also editors of the journal Southeast European and Black Sea Studies (SEEBSS). The four sessions of the seminar were held online and attended mostly by University of Belgrade MA students, PhD candidates and professors, but also other MIGREC team members from ELIAMEP and SEERC. The goal of the seminar was to improve the understanding of the publication process for prominent international scientific journals.
The first and second sessions, on 3 and 5 March, focused on identifying the academic journal that best fits one research article. The first session featured a guest lecturer, Anthropology professor Russell King of the University of Sussex who shared his experience as the editor of the well-known migration journal JEMS. The second session expanded on this excellent foundation to discuss the topic from an area studies perspective, as provided by the Armakolas and Funk, editors of SEEBSS. Topics covered in these sessions included: choosing one’s audience, journal aims and scope that match one’s research, the importance of journal metrics and types of publishing options.
The third and fourth sessions of the seminar, on 31 March and 7 April, provided detailed information about preparing a manuscript to submit to an international journal and what happens to that manuscript while you are waiting, from the perspective of the editors of SEEBSS and other examples provided by participants. The goal of the third session was to give inside tips to students and scholars about crucial elements editors look for in a newly submitted manuscript and how to avoid desk rejection. The fourth session covered how to engage with international journals, including specific submission requirements and instructions for authors, online submission systems, English language copy-editing, and what to expect during the process of peer review towards publication. In both sessions we worked with the titles, abstracts and keywords of students participating, suggesting improvements.
The MIGREC team looks forward to the next Publishing Seminar, to be held hopefully in May / June 2021, ‘Publish or Perish. Marketing your research to reach an international audience’, which aims to grow participants’ capacities to produce more appealing research outputs for prominent international scientific journals.
