Building your Postgraduate CV via Student-led Publications

Carly McNamara is a thesis-pending PhD student in Celtic and Gaelic, focusing on early medieval Irish and Scottish History. They are an international student, originally hailing from Texas in the USA. Carly also works as a GTA in the Celtic and Gaelic department. In this post, they discuss the ways PGRs can get involved in student-led publications to develop skills and build your CV.

As a postgraduate, we hear quite a bit about the importance of building our CVs and getting valuable experience that will help us land a job (academic or non-academic) once we’re finished. However, there are so many experiences and opportunities out there that it can be daunting and difficult to think of where to start.

One starting point is publication, and there’s lots of talk about the importance of them and the role of journals in academia, but experiencing the process is different than discussing it. In this post, I’m going to share one manageable way you can get your foot in the door that will help get you experience for the future (and for that all-important CV): involvement with student-led publications.

Student journals offer many ways to get involved, from being a copyeditor or peer reviewer, to submitting articles, or even serving on the Editorial Board. At the University of Glasgow there are two postgraduate journals: eSharp and The Kelvingrove Review, and an undergraduate journal, [X]position. It should be noted that eSharp and The Kelvingrove Review are focused on the Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences, Political Sciences, and Education.

Copyediting and Peer Reviewing

PGRs are unable to submit to [Xposition], but each year they need volunteers for copyediting, which is a great opportunity for postgraduate students. The time commitment is minimal, and you can put your involvement on your CV. Each year they advertise for a pool of copyeditors, and then select from that pool to provide copyediting services as needed. They provide some online training and you can stay in the pool from year to year.

Along similar lines to the copyediting work is serving as a peer reviewer. Both eSharp and The Kelvingrove Review are fully run by postgraduates, meaning that even the peer reviewing comes from postgraduate students. Similar to the process for [X]position, these two journals advertise every year for peer reviewers, and select from a pool to meet their needs. When you are selected as a peer reviewer you are provided guidance notes to help you understand exactly what the journal is looking for, so don’t worry if you’re not sure exactly what a peer reviewer does. These journals do not retain a pool of peer reviewers from year to year, so if you want to stay involved, you’ll have to volunteer again each year.

Article Submission

Another way to be involved is by submitting an article to a postgraduate journal for publication. Some postgraduate journals have an overall theme each year, which you’ll want to have a look at before you submit. Past themes for The Kelvingrove Review have included: ‘Silenced Voices’, ‘Myth and Nation’, and ‘(Re)Creation’. Past themes for eSharp have included: ‘Technology and Humanity’, ‘Gender: Power and Authority’, and ‘Trans-’.

The process of submitting articles works the same for these journals as for professional journals: you submit an abstract, and if selected, you write your article. The article goes through a peer review process (as mentioned above), and if your article makes it through, it is then published in the journal. This is a great opportunity for a lower stress option for trying to get one or more publications under your belt.

Joining the Editorial Board

If you want to take it to the next level, which involves the most time commitment but also a lot of personal development opportunities, you can join the Editorial Board of a postgraduate journal. There is a general meeting towards the end of the autumn semester for people who are interested, and the Editorial Board, usually consisting of 5-7 members, is selected following that meeting. Once you’re on the Editorial Board it’s the board’s responsibility to make the journal happen. There are some staff members who are there to assist and provide advice, but the journals are serious when they say it’s run by postgraduates. If you’re looking for some leadership opportunities or more concrete roles for organization and project management, this is a great opportunity.

There’s still time this year to be involved with these journals and get some personal and professional development: eSharp’s Call for Papers is open with a deadline of 6 February 2020, and keep an eye on your inbox for information about The Kelvingrove Review. Peer reviewers and copyeditors will be needed later in the year. The time to get involved as an author, peer reviewer, or copyeditor is now, so keep an eye out for information about these opportunities.

Also remember that there are other postgraduate journals out there, so you can look for opportunities outwith Glasgow, too. One example is Maze, a student-run psychology magazine at St. Andrews that is always accepting submissions. Maze was begun by Sarune Savickaite, a current UofG PGR, and you can email her with any questions or to indicate your interest.