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[dreamsailor]

 Hi Everyone, I've been feeling quite anxious with my career trajectory and I hope to share with you and would appreciate some advise on career development.

I graduated with a PhD in social scienceback in 2009, had baby the same year, and then another one this year. I've been working as an adjunct on and off. I have four book chapters published or in press; one book contract, and a couple other smaller publications. I'm thinking of applying for a TT next year and start the job fall 2013. Here's where my anxiety come from:

1, I worry that the gap between a fresh PhD degree and applying for TT is too big, and I would be unemployable.

2, To keep myself current, I've published almost all my research done in Graduate School including my dissertation. I worry even if I get a TT, I won't have ready material to work on; I need to do brand new research, which would be challenging in the first a couple years of TT life, with teaching and service.  More than one professors said I shouldn't have published my dissertation.

3,  I wonder whether I could revise a published book chapter and submit to a peer-review journal?

4, From time to time I wonder whether I'm TT material, especially for research universities. I enjoy research and thinking , but I'm not a good writer or fast writer. I totally enjoyed doing research for my dssertation, but writtinng it was such a draining long process. What I enjoy is teaching, researching, atteinding conferences, and giving speeches.

Any thoughts, comments, advise is greatly apprecited.

[helpful]

There is not much point in doing research and attending conferences if you are not going to publish or write. One major purpose of research is to disseminate the findings.

PS Advise (ad-vize) is a verb; Advice (ad-vice) is the noun you want here.

hat I enjoy is teaching, researching, attending conferences, and giving speeches.

Don't you have to write speeches?

It sounds like you want a teaching position or a research lab position where you don't have to write!

[totoro]

It wouldn't make sense not to have published your dissertation because then there would be less on your CV. Make sure when you apply that SCs know you just had two babies. That's a very legit reason for not having done more. You say you have a book contract - that means you need to still complete the book? Or that is for your dissertation? I'm not clear. This will depend on disciplinary norms, but I have usually used book chapters as a basis for journal articles. I can cut down the background material and add some new analysis of the data or whatever and it is pretty legit then. But in some fields this might be looked down on. I'm in economics/environmental studies. I think most of us have areas we are weak in or don't like. Mine would probably be preparing classes. Make sure that you have a plan for new research which you can articulate to SCs and maybe ideas of how to get a grant to fund it. They love that kind of stuff.

[msparticularity]

If I'm understanding you correctly, Dreamsailor, you don't have any peer-reviewed journal articles--is this correct? I see that as the greatest barrier to success on the TT job market for someone in the social sciences who has been out for a while. It's not that book chapters don't matter at all, but that book chapters at the expense of journal articles can make you look like you're not serious about the research side of your career--an impression that is confirmed by your dislike for writing, actually.

It would be helpful to us if you could give us an idea of your field, including whether the job market is super-competitive, or not so bad. Also, are you geographically bound, or open to moving anywhere? 

[brixton]

Are you geographically flexible?  If not, TT may be hard for that reason alone.  If your heart isn't in it (and frankly it sounds like it's not here), I probably wouldn't go farther, if I were you.  It really takes a commitment, both in terms of time that you put into applications and burnishing up your career before the pause.  It's very possible, but you have to be quite commited.

[this_is_my_username]

 Wow. I'm in the social sciences, and at least in my little corner of that world, three publications a year and a book every five equals a superstar. To provide more perspective, I interviewed with the U of Alabama once, and their publication requirements for tenure were four peer-reviewed publications, at least one placed in a moderately ranked journal, and a good-faith attempt to secure extramural funding. That was considered a choice job by everyone I know.

 Four book chapters (I'm assuming peer reviewed), a few 'other things' (not sure what to assume) and a book contract is pretty darn good for 2-3 years out. I know of several individuals at TT SLAC positions that are in the midst of their three year review (they also graduated in 2009) with one peer-reviewed book chapter to their name (and a gentle warning that this will not cut it). So the OP is presumably holding serve on the publication front, unless the goal is a top R1, though I agree a journal article would be helpful at this stage.

 2009 may have been the worst job market in the history of world, so involuntary adjuncting should carry no stigma. You want to make sure you are teaching the range of classes you would be asked to teach at a TT institution (in other words, not just Intro over and over again). The next step would be to clearly articulate what your next research project is, and what steps you have already undertaken to make it possible.

 You would draw some interest in my social science specialization. The job market is still poor, so that interest might be from places not considered very desirable by most academics (rural red state).

[seniorscholar]

  Four book chapters (I'm assuming peer reviewed), a few 'other things' (not sure what to assume) and a book contract is pretty darn good for 2-3 years out.

On the other hand, book chapters are often not really "peer reviewed" -- they're accepted by the editor. A search committee will know (or find out) if the editor is a known and reputable scholar . . . or a graduate student who organized a panel for a local conference, and if the book is published by an academic press or by the local printer that produces "books" from a set of conference papers. And the same is true of the "book contract" -- an academic press or a vanity or near-vanity press.

In other words, we have had applications from people with chapters in a lot of books with iffy publishers, and a contract with -- honestly, this once happened -- a press that shared a name and address with the "scholar's" dog (as discovered by the grad student on the search committee via a Google search that turned up the applicant's personal web page).

I'm not suggesting that dreamsailor is that kind of faker -- not at all -- but I am warning this is my username against judging by quantity, since most departments are looking for quality, and not all books, publishers, chapters, editors, or journals are equal. I always warn my doctoral students against investing time in reference book projects with solicitations sent out by someone with no personal publication record -- people can rush into those things thinking "I'll have 5 publications when I graduate!" when spending the same amount of time doing the research, revising, revising, and rewriting to place one article in a good journal would be much more impressive.

And as for dreamsailor -- if you're reading this far (I hope you are): search committees can read a woman's c.v. and figure out when the babies were born even if they're not mentioned in the letter. If it is the case, though, that you really do not have any real current research to work up for a good publication, you might indeed do better by polishing up your teaching record and skills. When we see a female c.v.s with big gaps, we worry most about the lack of a teaching reference from any of the adjunct positions. If the only teaching reference you have is one paragraph in the letter from your dissertation supervisor (whose TA you were), we -- even at a research university -- are reluctant to put the candidate into a classroom..

[totoro]

I was leading a session on increasing "academic impact" at our annual "research retreat" last week. One of my points is that journal articles are better than book chapters. There is always resistance to this idea from the people with lots of book chapters on their CV. But journal articles do get refereed more rigorously and distributed much more widely (though Google Books is going to help book chapters). I find they get more than an order of magnitude more citations. Personally, I've used them as first drafts and background reviews that I have then gone on to develop into journal articles. The last one I did for an encyclopedia I just polished up a lecture I gave a few years ago into a proper text with a few updated references.

[helpful]

"Academic impact" is fine but our field is more concerned with getting knowledge out to policy makers and others outside academia. In our field which is related to practical work, book chapters are much more useful as people engaged in the field outside the community will read them. This is especially the case with non-university people in our field who don't have access to online journals other than open access ones. I guess as more and more journals go the open access route, this will be less of a problem.

All the book chapters I have published (and books) have been peer reviewed. Some even twice (once by the editorial board of the publisher, and another time by peers in the field).

Journals in my field are also often too theoretically focused for non-university people.

PS Totoro, aren't you in environmental studies and economics? That would be two fields immensely concerned with reaching the 'average Joe" or "average Josephine" in policy and practice!

On preview: chime with seniorscholar. there are books , and then there are books.....

[totoro]

"Academic impact" is fine but our field is more concerned with getting knowledge out to policy makers and others outside academia. In our field which is related to practical work, book chapters are much more useful as people engaged in the field outside the community will read them. This is especially the case with non-university people in our field who don't have access to online journals other than open access ones. I guess as more and more journals go the open access route, this will be less of a problem.

All the book chapters I have published (and books) have been peer reviewed. Some even twice (once by the editorial board of the publisher, and another time by peers in the field).

Journals in my field are also often too theoretically focused for non-university people.

PS Totoro, aren't you in environmental studies and economics? That would be two fields immensely concerned with reaching the 'average Joe" or "average Josephine" in policy and practice!

On preview: chime with seniorscholar. there are books , and then there are books.....

The next session after mine was on "policy impact". But I really don't think book chapters are particularly accessible to policymakers - e.g. the people who work in government departments I know. At least before the advent of Google Books. Edited books are usually very expensive and any library in any location only will stock some subset. And then they have to get to the physical library location, look up the chapter and make a copy (as they likely don't have borrowing privileges or access to inter-library loan). Here, different government departments have different levels of access. The central bank and finance ministry have much more access than other departments to the academic literature. So they just do searches on Google and see what comes up. Most accessible are the "working papers" in our field as they are mostly free on the internet.

The policy impact session was all about how you need to interact in person with policymakers and the media to make headway.

[this_is_my_username]

 My experience publishing a volume through a major university press meant that each chapter (~30 pages) went through an editorial committee (twice), all of whom experts on the particular subject (they publish on a very narrow sub-specialization), and who provided the sorts of comments one typically gets when one submits an article to a journal. About one third of the chapters were rejected, the other two thirds revised a great deal. As the lead editor of the book, I never had the ultimate ability to accept or decline if I wanted to publish where I did.

 That may not be the classic external double-blind peer review, but I've also had journal article reviewers who were much more hit or miss in terms of their expertise. I've found the volume process more rigorous than any journal I've published in thus far, and it seems like a lot of work to do in order to have search committees blithely poo poo the effort. We all call these chapters 'peer reviewed' in my discipline, but we will set apart off from journal articles if the CV is long enough.

 Such chapters are cited less often than articles in the top journals, but I also not aware anyone who graduated in 2009 that has placed an article in one of those yet. Volumes with big names have greater academic impact as most 'Journal of Regional Topic' venues in my specialization. I suppose it all depends where the OP's chapters are placed, and whether she is in a discipline where this counts for something.

 

[tenured_feminist]

Look, I have co-edited two books and am working on a third and have published many book chapters. I know that this work is valuable, and I know that a book chapter can be an excellent piece of primary scholarship that contributes to the field. I also believe that in an age of ebooks and googlebooks, volumes will come to get more credit as we move on.

But the reality right now is that peer-reviewed articles, even in the Peer-Reviewed Journal of Crap Research (as long as said journal is indexed by ISI), weigh more heavily for most decision-makers than even a chapter in a volume published by Hoity Toity University Press. Exceptions can be made, but they have to be argued specifically as exceptions.

The reason for this is that, as universities increasingly rely on "objective" metrics of scholarly productivity, and those metrics count peer-reviewed journal articles but not book chapters. [rant redacted]

Hear me now, all junior scholars and folks looking for jobs in the social sciences: publish articles in journals that are indexed, and fight the good fight for the worth of edited volumes after tenure or at least after you've established a tenurable publishing record.

[totoro]

I used to think that book chapters were good when I was only a few years out from my PhD. My theory was that you had to get invited to write a chapter, so even if the review wasn't as rigorous usually this showed that you were networked and would look good on the CV. But I was wrong. Anyway, my chairman (US R1) told me to publish less book chapters... and gradually I saw they didn't count for so much. I actually just did the computation today and my journal articles have received just over 10 times as many citations on average as my book chapters. So the order of magnitude thing was about right. Here in Australia the Department of Education gives us half the credit for a book chapter that any journal article gets (in terms of baseline research funding the university gets from the ministry).

[dreamsailor]

As a junior "scholar" who knows more about research than publication market and academic job market, sometimes I feel a bit upset that I didn't "play the game" right and failed to get the most out of my hard work. For example, when I completed my dissertation, I was approached by three publishers soliciting a book proposal. Well, I could have published it with one of the most prestigous publishers in the social science field, but... right before they offered me a book contract, I did something to jepodize it. I then signed a contract with a less wellknown publisher. I don't want to reveal too much detail here since academic community is kind of small. Another example is to "give away" one of my favorate article just because the editor who solicited it was one of my favorate old schoolmates who's a TT professor. But other than those two cases, all my other book chapters are published by prestigous publishers.

My field is Sociology of Education. According to a Sociology professor at a local state university, I have more publication and better credential than some of their tenured professors. He might be encouraging me, but I do have some confidence with my publication record. My teaching  is also applauded by both my chair and students too. I'm just concerned that I'm not a fresh graduate anymore, and the gap could hurt me when search committee looks at my CV.  They would probably think I'm not taking career seriously. Well, I was hoping I could get the "baby work" done so that I could concentrate on my job once I start a challenging career.

[msparticularity]

Dreamsailor, you are facing some very serious difficulties on the TT job market, and I'm afraid that your doctoral program may not have mentored you appropriately for the job market in your field. The first thing you need to realize is that dedicated positions in educational foundations are increasingly rare; unless you also have K-12 teaching experience and/or administrative credentials and/or higher ed background (in programs, finance, or something similar), there will be relatively few positions for which you will be qualified and you will have an enormous number of competitors for those. The second issue is that education is a "journal field." You, however, have now been out since 2009, have no peer-reviewed journal articles, and apparently do not have anything left from your dissertation that is suitable for journal submission. From the perspective of a hiring committee in your field, you really do not have anything to demonstrate research credentials. Further, since you're not all that excited about research, you need to think long and hard about the fact that your field is not one that is typically even available at teaching-focused institutions.

Have you even begun to look at the job listings in your field this year? I have, since I'm in a related area, and it's pretty scary even for those who are massively qualified. I'm truly sorry to contribute to your anxiety, but I'm afraid that the reality is not pretty--so I'm even sorrier that no one has said any of this to you earlier.