Professional Development

Getting Started on Academic
Publishing with the JALT Peer
Support Group
Loran Edwards
Peer Support Group (PSG) Coordinator
In Japan, one expectation many higher education employers have is for language
teachers to conduct and publish research. The implication is that hiring
committees expect evidence of academic research and publications when hiring
for language teaching positions (McCrostie, 2010). This can be problematic for
language teachers whose backgrounds, training or specializations are often notresearch-based. For many then, the task of writing and publishing peer-reviewed
papers is a daunting one. Fortunately, there are people who can help. The JALT
Writers’ Peer Support Group (PSG) is a team of writers and teachers, called peerreaders, who collaboratively assist other writers to develop their manuscripts toa (hopefully) publishable level. It is associated with JALT, but is available to help
any writers who are looking to publish with any publication and, since the PSG isstaffed entirely by volunteers all of our services are free of charge.

What is the PSG and What Does it Do?

Whether you are an old hand or just starting out, academic writing is a difficult
and time-consuming process, and a single paper may need several reviews andrewrites before it is ready to be submitted for publication (Belcher, 2007). The
peer-readers at the PSG help writers at all levels of proficiency and experience tomanage that process. They work with authors to develop overall writing skills,
provide feedback on general organization and identify areas that need further35

Edwards

development, additional research or which need to be more tightly focused.
Usually, grammar and style are not discussed in detail although writers areencouraged to submit subsequent drafts to the PSG so that, as papers progress,
sentence-level issues can be addressed more specifically.
Currently, we can only read papers written in English, although for many of
the writers who utilize the PSG’s services English is not their first language.

Getting Started

Although the peer-readers are happy to work with writers at any stage of thewriting process, it is helpful for us if the writers have completed a fairly complete
draft and have some ideas about what their end-goals are. Specifically, thisincludes consideration of which journal they would like to submit the paper to,
how soon (i.e., a timeline) and for what purpose.
However, the hardest part of writing is often just getting started, finding asuitable topic, deciding and formulating a clear research question and figuring out
how to collect your data (Beaufait, Edwards, & Muller, 2014). One useful prewriting technique is to start by reading other papers that are written on a similar
topic or in the same style as the paper you hope to write. A great place to start iswith JALT publications. Archives for The Language Teacher, The JALT Journaland past conference proceedings can all be accessed online at <jalt-publications.
org>. Not only can reading some of these papers give you an idea about writing
style and format, but they are also excellent places to find literary sources for yourresearch. Furthermore, if you have an idea about which journal you would like tosubmit your paper to for publication, it is very helpful to read articles from thatjournal and, if possible, to cite some of their previously published articles in yourpaper too as this shows you are aware of their current research and are a part oftheir readership. (Beaufait, Edwards, & Muller, 2014).
Another sticking point for novice writers is how to use and cite sources
correctly. It is recommended that anyone planning on writing for academic
publishing obtains a copy of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological
Association, 6th edition (2010), or the abridged Concise Rules of APA Style(2010). Alternatively, a list of other APA guides is available at <http://jaltcue.
36

JALT Peer Support Group, OnCUE Journal, 8(1), pages 35-39

org/>reference. It is a good idea to write a working bibliography that you canupdate as you go along, which lists all the sources you have looked at, used in yourpaper, or think are interesting, along with all the pertinent reference information.
If you intend to do a lot of academic writing, then consider acquiring Endnote(http://endnote.com/). It is an excellent software application that helps you tostore and organize your literary references, import them easily in to your papers
as you type and also quickly switch from one bibliographic referencing style
to another. Try to build this working bibliography using APA style as muchas possible as this is the system most commonly used in journals. It is easy toproduce a reference list by deleting unused sources from a complete bibliography,
but getting to the editing stage of a paper and realizing that you cannot find thecomplete reference information for a key quote or passage is quite frustrating.

How the PSG System Works

When you have a draft ready for someone else to read, you can send it to the PSG
coordinator at <http://jalt-publications.org/psg> along with a brief descriptionof your writing process or experiences so far, your plans for the finished paper
and, if possible, some ideas on what areas you are having the most trouble with or
would like a peer-reader to focus on. Once the coordinator receives a paper froma writer, she alerts the group and places the paper in a file on Google Drive. Peerreaders can then look at the paper and decide if they are interested in the topic
and feel able to provide feedback on it. With a growing number of peer-readers
becoming involved in the PSG, the increasingly varied areas of expertise available
makes it easier to match authors and readers. Once two readers are found, thecoordinator contacts the author again to let them know the paper is in the systemand gives them a time frame for the reviews to be finished. When both reviews
are finished and added to the file in Google Drive, the coordinator contacts theauthor again to give them access to the file along with the reviews. In that way, theauthor can ask direct questions to the peer-readers through the online system andvice versa. The whole process usually takes between four and six weeks.
Unlike with the review process for publications, the PSG reviews are notanonymous. We strive to keep the review process open and collaborative in37

Edwardsorder to build a sense of community. We are not publishers evaluating a piece forpublication; we are peers helping colleagues to improve their writing. In orderto access the Google Drive file, you will need to provide the coordinator with aGmail address. If you do not have one already, it is easy to set up.

PSG at the JALT National ConferenceThis year, the PSG has been invited to present at the JALT National Conferencein Shizuoka. Members of the PSG will share information on finding appropriate
publication venues, the basics of writing academic papers and preparing them for
publication and, finally, talk about services the PSG provides and how writers canget help raising their writing to a publishable level. We hope you can come andjoin us! Also, stop by the publications table to get more information on working
with the PSG, either as a writer looking to publish or as a volunteer peer-reader.

Join Our TeamWe are always looking for new volunteers and there are many benefits to becoming
a peer-reader with the PSG. One of the biggest is the personal, professional andacademic development that it confers. By helping others in their writing andpublishing endeavors, you enhance your own skill set and knowledge base.
Another benefit is that you discover other teachers and writers who areinterested in the same topics as you and build a writing network that could leadto collaboration in the future or provide you with valuable insights into your own
research.
We use a collaborative review system that allows less-experienced readers
to work with more experienced ones. It also gives new readers a chance to readfinished reviews in our archives to help them see which areas of a paper tofocus on, the style the review should be written in, and other aspects of writing
formative feedback to writers. Since the PSG does not actually publish papers,
there is less pressure to get it right. All papers submitted to the PSG will still bereviewed and edited by the publication where they are submitted.
When you sign up with the PSG, the coordinator will add you to the PSG
mailing list and post a welcome message to the group. When you respond to this38

JALT Peer Support Group, OnCUE Journal, 8(1), pages 35-39

message, the coordinator will then be able to grant you access to PSG resources
on Google Drive, which include some resources for readers, such as a worksheetwith tips for writing reviews, a number of papers currently being reviewed and anarchive containing papers that have been reviewed and returned to writers.
As of July, 2014 there were approximately 20 active peer-readers. The PSG
receives, on average, one to two requests for review a month. We ask peer-readers
to try and review at least two papers a year. As the goal is to have two peer-readers
comment on each paper, we usually ask for a two-week turn around so that theauthor can get the comments within a month of initial submission. As a PSG
member, you are also invited to help with the PSG Writing Conferences at theJALT National conference this fall, as well as future conferences.
If you are interested in becoming a peer-reader, please contact the coordinatorat <jalt-publications.org/psg> and she will get back to you as soon as possible.

References

Beaufait, P., Edwards, L., & Muller, T. (2014). Writing for academic
publication: Participation and collaboration. The 2013PanSIG Conference Proceedings, 339-346. http://www.pansig.
org/2013/2013PanSIGProceedings.pdf
Belcher, D. (2007). Seeking acceptance in an English-only research world.
Journal of Second Language Writing, 16, 1-22.
McCrostie, J. (2010). The right stuff: Hiring trends for tenured university
positions in Japan. The Language Teacher, 34(5), 31-35.

Author Bio

Loran Edwards currently teaches at Kansai Gaidai University in Hirakata, Japan.
She has been a peer-reader for the PSG since 2005 and became the coordinator inJanuary, 2013. Her hope is that more people will be able to find publishing successthrough services such as the PSG. loranedwards@mac.com
Received: July 4, 2014
Accepted: July 17, 201439