1st EAJS Publication Workshop (Berlin, Germany, 16-18 November 2015)

Report of the Academic Organizer
For many years, the European Association for Japanese Studies has supported the career developmentof young scholars of Japanese Studies by hosting workshops for doctoral students on a regular basis.
At all PhD Workshops, organizers include the opportunity for doctoral candidates to provide feedback
and to state requests or recommendations for future PhD workshops. One request that was made veryfrequently was for information about publication options and related strategies, not only in the contextof book publications, but also in the context of scholarly journals and the peer review processes. Such
requests were often made by PhD students from non-English speaking countries.
Academics in Europe and elsewhere are increasingly set into a competitive environment in the earlystages of their careers, and researchers feel more and more obliged to try and publish their researchin peer reviewed international journals early on. For many young scholars, the peer review process is
not transparent and they feel insecure about how to best proceed to publish their research findings.
To respond to this need, the EAJS Council decided to organize a workshop dedicated to the academic
publishing process, with a focus on peer reviewed academic journals in English.
The aim we set out for the First EAJS Publication Workshop was to equip doctoral students and young
postdoctoral researchers with essential knowledge about the academic publication process byproviding advice about how to find the right journal for their work, how to write letters to the editor
at the stage of manuscript submission and also in the process of revisions, and how to address criticalissues raised in the review process.
The workshop took place at Freie Universität Berlin from 16 to 18 November 2015. Project leader wasProfessor Verena Blechinger-Talcott from the Institute of East Asian Studies – Japanese Studies at FU
Berlin.
In organizing this workshop, the EAJS cooperated closely with FU Berlin’s Graduate School of East AsianStudies, which allowed us to make use of university facilities and other local infrastructure.
The workshop’s main events were hosted at Harnack House, a conference venue run by the Max Planck
Society which is conveniently located within walking distance of FU Berlin’s Institute of East AsianStudies.
All participants stayed at Motel One in Berlin-Charlottenburg, near one of the city’s major junctions
with excellent public transport connections to the university.
The workshop brought together young researchers at the doctoral and postdoctoral level on the one
hand, and a team of senior academics who have experience as reviewers, as editorial board members
or as editors of peer-reviewed journals on the other hand.
The advisors and areas covered were:•

Stephen Dodd, SOAS, University of London (member of the Editorial Board of Japan Forum,flagship journal of the British Association for Japanese Studies)•Stanca Scholz-Cionca, Trier University (literature and cultural studies)•

Verena Blechinger-Talcott, Freie Universität Berlin (social science)•Urs Matthias Zachmann, University of Edinburgh (history)

1st EAJS Publication Workshop (Berlin, Germany, 16-18 November 2015)

The workshop participants were selected by the team of advisors based on online applications which
included the applicant’s CV, a letter of motivation, and an abstract of the manuscript intended forpublication.
We selected candidates primarily based on the academic quality of the proposed article. At the sametime, we took special care to select researchers who displayed high potential for research and whose
native language is not English.
During the application period from 1 August to 1 September 2015, the EAJS office received a total of
22 applications, out of which the selection committee chose 11 candidates for participation.
In terms of nationality, the final group of participants comprised three researchers from Japan, twofrom Poland, and one each from Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain and Italy.
All selected participants were required to submit a full article manuscript intended for publication in ajournal in advance of the workshop. All manuscripts were circulated among all advisors andparticipants.
The workshop used two formats: first, Steven Dodd as editor of the journal Japan Forum introduced
the various steps of the peer review process and explained from the perspective of an editor which
information was needed from authors at each point in time. The discussions focused on how to selectthe best journal for one’s research, how to tell a peer reviewed journal from a non-peer reviewed
journal and how to get more information about a journal’s focus and policies. Verena BlechingerTalcott and Stephen Dodd explained the various steps of the review process and addressed possible
pitfalls authors should avoid (for example multiple submissions at the same time). Participants also
received sample letters to the editor intended to clearly communicate the points of the manuscript
submitted, thus ensuring that journal editors could find the most suitable reviewers.
We closed the first day of the workshop with an evening reception at Restaurant “Alter Krug” near theuniversity, thus giving participants the opportunity to get to know each other and to learn more about
each other’s research.
The second and third day of the workshop were devoted to the intensive discussion of the individual
article manuscripts. The conceptual idea was here to simulate the peer review process. Authors did
not present their work, but senior advisors and later other participants played the roles of peer
reviewers, summarized the points of each article manuscript and discussed the manuscript’s strengths
and weaknesses. At the end of each discussion, recommendations for revision were given by alladvisors and participants.
The papers were grouped into the sections "history", "literature and cultural studies" and "socialsciences", in line with the respective expertise of the advisor who chaired the discussion.
Each manuscript was discussed for about 45 mins. Senior advisors would take the lead in thediscussion, followed by participants.
At the end of the discussion, authors were allowed to answer questions or respond to the comments
received. Each session also ended with recommendations about which journals in the field of JapaneseStudies or area studies might be suitable outlets for manuscript submission.
The presentation of a second set of general guidelines later on in the program supplemented theindividual sessions, with Verena Blechinger-Talcott and Stephen Dodd discussing strategies on how todeal with problems in the submission process and how to respond to reviewer’s comments. Issues
discussed here were strategies for revision and for communicating with journal editors about how to1st EAJS Publication Workshop (Berlin, Germany, 16-18 November 2015)

address which revisions were made to a manuscript. Considerable time was also used on strategies incases where manuscripts were rejected, given the high rejection rates of many academic journals.
Initial reactions by workshop participants were highly positive. On the one hand, participants weregrateful for comments and suggestions received, but they also highlighted that they had a better
understanding of the peer review process and related communication strategies. All participants spokeout in favor of making such publication workshops a regular EAJS event, maybe taking place every twoto three years to complement the PhD workshops.
The organizers and participants would like to thank the Japan Foundation for generously providing
funds for travel and accommodation during the workshop. Moreover, many thanks go to the EAJSOffice staff for organizational support.