Hot on the heels of PhD thesis: writing it up (and the art of procrastination), The Times Education published Want to be a successful academic? It’s all about getting published - in this opinion piece Im covering some of the more practical elements about progressing from your PhD to publishing in journals and what you need to do to achieve this. These thoughts have been gathered from colleagues, students and the scars of publishing!!

I recently had an opinion piece published in Times Higher Education - this is advice on the process of writing up, how we all procrastinate on finishing it and what to do about it! It evolved out of discussions with PhD students over the years and advice to them, as well as fighting my own procrastination monkey at times. These things have worked for me and for some students, so if you struggle with getting those words down on paper… give them a try!

Art-geoscience: exploring interdisciplinary representations of space and place

We would like to invite contributions to a special issue of the Journal of Maps devoted to interdisciplinary collaborations between the arts and sciences, with a specific focus upon an exploration of a location using, at least in part, some form of mapping and ideally involving the collaboration of artists and scientists.

PURPOSE
The fundamental basis for this special issue is the growing interest in interdisciplinary collaboration and in particular the crossover between the arts and sciences. Art is seen an important component in exploring and explaining science, whilst science offers new avenues for creative investigation and recording of phenomena. This is a general call for a special issue entitled ‘art-geoscience: exploring interdisciplinary representations of space and place’ and provides an opportunity for collaborative researchers to present their work.

BACKGROUND
Recent years have seen increased collaboration between the arts and sciences, with conferences, exhibitions and residencies devoted to exploring the inspirations and mutual benefits that can arise from activities that bridge the two spheres. Subjects such as biology, chemistry, and global climate change commonly feature prominently in such collaborations, but many of the geosciences (e.g. geomorphology, geology, geophysics) are less well represented.

Despite rapid movements towards global connectedness, with people, goods, services and scientific data now moving at speed over vast distances, space and place still retain great power in shaping the world. Many visual art forms can help to document and represent such themes, especially when combined with various forms of mapping.

TOPICS
Without constraining the range of topics that are potentially suitable for inclusion in the special issue, we offer the following as examples:

• use of scientific methods or techniques specifically for an artistic investigations of a location;
• scientific data already collected for a location-based projects that are re-used or re-purposed for artistic means;
• artistic data or outputs that are re-purposed and re-used for a location-based, scientific project;
• use of artistic techniques to investigate phenomena and/or enhance presentation and communication of scientific data.

The artistic medium can be anything that can be reasonably explained or presented within the journal. Beyond the inclusion of traditional mapping products (see below), we are keen to see submissions that may also use 3D models, video or audio to enable space- and place-based representations, or videos that present and explore the artistic work itself.

SUBMISSION
All papers are expected to consist of a map or series of maps (loosely and broadly defined to include various forms of spatial representation) accompanied by brief explanatory text. Papers should be bespoke, and the mapping of good quality. All papers in this special issue will be peer reviewed. To submit a paper, authors should do the following:

1. Submit a short draft (500 word limit) outlining the key themes and scope of the paper, where possible including example mapping, by 28 February 2017.

Abstract selection will be by the special issue editorial team. You will receive a notification by 31 March 2017.

2. Submit a completed paper (4000 word limit) by 30 June 2017.

3. The special issue will be published in 2018.

Ideally, the work would involve the collaboration of artists and scientists.

The special issue editorial team are happy to discuss ideas for papers and their suitability with potential contributors prior to the short draft submission stage. Please email Mike Smith (ku32113@kingston.ac.uk) or Stephen Tooth (set@aber.ac.uk) in the first instance.

All submissions should be made via the Journal of Maps website (http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/tjom20/current) where further guidance on all aspects of submission can be found. Please note the journal is open access, with an article processing charge of £400.

Stephen Tooth, Aberystwyth University, UK
Mike Smith, Kingston University, UK
Heather Viles, University of Oxford, UK
Flora Parrott, Tintype, London, UK

Its Open Access Week this week and our publisher at the Journal of Maps, Taylor and Francis, are running a range of activities promoting OA. So go check out the resources to look at what OA has to offer and, not least (!), my own article on implications and stakeholders in moving to OA.

Well the dust has settled on Peer Review Week, a low profile (!) event celebrating the moderating role of peer review scholarly communication. It’s good to see lots of high profile sponsors although a few notable gaps so I would encourage those organisations to get behind this initiative as it’s essential in all aspects of public life, working with government and communicating to the broader general public.

Sense About Science were active as part of their advocacy role of science in public life and its worth pointing to some of their resources for those that may have missed them last week:

I Don’t Know What to Believe: in their own words This leaflet is for people who follow debates about science and medicine in the news. It explains how scientists present and judge research and how you can ask questions of the scientific information presented to you.
Peer review: the nuts and bolts: a pamphlet target at early career researchers to make sense of the whole academic publishing scene.

And for those ECRs wanting some hands on guidance then go along to the next Peer Review Workshop.