Academic Events
Writing to Publish in Western Academic Journals: International Education Symposium (No.88)
Publish Date:2015-12-11
 On December 2, 2015, Professor SUN Qi from the University of Wyoming delivered a lecture entitled “Writing to Publish in Western Academic Journals” for IICE’s International Education Podium. The lecture was chaired by IICE Prof. ZENG Xiaojie and attended by graduate students.

 

Prof. Qi is head of Adult & Post-Secondary Education Program at the University of Wyoming. She previously served in the Adult Education Department of the Ministry of Education in China where was in charge of policy research on adult education and of coordination of international projects. Currently, she is a co-editor of Adult Education Quarterly, a core journal of international adult education, a member of editorial boards of multiple western educational journals, and a core leader of the American Association for Adult and Continuing Education (AAACE). Her main research interests include international and comparative education, adult education philosophy, adult education theory, adult development theory, adult learning methods, teaching strategies for adult higher education, lifelong learning and learning society, international students, and cross-culture teaching and learning. She has also long been committed to exchanges between eastern and western education especially among Sino-American academic institutes.

 

In the lecture, Prof. SUN, drawing on her years of experience reviewing papers for international journals, explained steps and main points of how to write and contribute papers to these journals. She then discussed the example of Adult Education Quarterly. As well as introducing the journal’s review standards, she also talked about some of the publication challenges faced by non-native speakers of English. She said there are several steps to follow. First, she suggesting exploring the journal’s foci, style, and length and format guidelines to ensure the potential submission is a match. Then, she suggested several additional ways to increase the likelihood of getting a paper peer reviewed, including ensuring that the research topic is of interest of the journal, the content and research methods are in line with the perspective of the journal, the paper helps the readers broaden their horizons, the title is innovative and attractive, the chosen topic is timely, and the paper is well-written. Lastly, she noted that research content, theoretical framework, literature review, research design, findings and results, and conclusions and implications for future research trends are key factors for consideration by western academic journals.

 

The lecture ended with discussions, questions and answers. Prof. ZENG gave a short summary of the lecture.