Reports by the EAJS Publication Workshop ParticipantsFirst EAJS Publication Workshop
FU Berlin, Germany
16 – 18 November 2015

Reports by the EAJS Publication Workshop Participants

I was very glad to receive the possibility of visiting FU Berlin for the publication workshop. The
three-day-stay in Berlin was a hard work, which brought a lot of new information and skills.
The advisors, who represented different fields of interest in Japanese studies, gave great
feedback to all participants and encouraged young scholars to present their research inrenowned English-language peer-reviewed journals.
First of all, I really appreciate the idea of the workshop. As a researcher based in Poland, I
usually publish my papers in Polish academic journal, both in Polish and English. Receiving
information about the process of publishing in foreign journals is a great opportunity topromote my research among scholars who do research on Japan all over the world.
Secondly, the way how the workshop was organized should be emphasised in this report.
Receiving all articles before the workshop made me become familiar with other participants’work and encouraged me to comment and ask questions during the workshop. It was very
helpful for developing my knowledge not only in Japanese history and politics, which are in
my field of interest, but also in Japanese culture and literature.
Regarding my paper, receiving feedback from many scholar (advisors and participants) was
something that wouldn’t be possible during a regular conference or seminar. Additional
discussions were possible during the breaks and made me gain specific information regarding
my research and my paper. An additional benefit was being introduced to other scholars whostart their scientific career. It was great to meet them all and to find people who have similar
academic interests. This enables us to start thinking about international research projects on
Japan that can be conducted among our universities.
I am really grateful to the Japan Foundation for the financial support, to the advisers for thehelp and feedback on my paper, and to the participants for fruitful discussions. I look forward
to other activities that help advancing research on Japan.
Olga Anna Barbasiewicz
Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland
First of all I would like to thank you for inviting me to the 1st EAJS Publication Workshop.
It was a great pleasure and, at the same time, a very challenging event for me. The workshop
was one of the most useful experiences I have had during my PhD studies. During only three1

Reports by the EAJS Publication Workshop Participants
days I was given a lot of constructive feedback and kind advice that had a positive impact on
my motivation and self-confidence.
One of the most valuable features of the workshop was undoubtedly the possibility to learn
how to write a proper paper in English that may be chosen by academic journals for
publication. I believe that this is really important knowledge for young scholars without an
English-speaking background who want to present the results of their research in English.
I also appreciated the form of the workshop and its interdisciplinary approach. All the papers
were discussed as if they were presented to the editorial board that decides whether thepaper is publishable or not. Each author received a number of comments not only fromsupervisors but also from other participants. This process may help the author to see whatkind of problems there were in the discussed paper and indicate possible ways of
improvement. The interdisciplinary facet of the workshop gave me a chance to look at mypaper from different angles and taught me how to combine different aspects of my researchto create a more complex methodological framework. Breaks between sessions and time formeals were nice opportunities to share and exchange ideas with supervisors and participants,
enabling a fresh look at our work.
The 1st EAJS Publication Workshop was a very well-organized academic event. I reallyappreciate the friendly atmosphere of the workshop. I would like to express my deepest
thanks to the EAJS, especially the organizers of this workshop at FU Berlin, and to Professor
Stanca Scholz-Cionca for the instructive feedback that I received not only about my submitted
paper but also on the methodological framework of my PhD project. I would like also to thankProfessor Stephen Dodd for all his constructive advice. This workshop was an invaluable
experience for me. Last but not least, my gratitude goes also to the Japan Foundation, whose
generous support made this workshop possible. Thank you very much!
Karolina Broma-Smenda
University of Warsaw, Poland
I attended the EAJS Publication Workshop and received advice on publishing my article titled“‘Self’ and ‘Other’ in Language: Ideas of ‘East’ and ‘West’ in the Development of the National
Language in Japan”, which is an overview of the evolving notion of the national language inthe recent history of Japan. I also benefited from learning about publishing in the field ofJapanese studies more generally. The opportunity was given to me at an ideal time as I wasjust considering where to publish my article and I wanted to get some experts’ comments andadvice before submitting it to any journal. It was a rare occasion for me to get feedback fromthe ‘mock editorial board’ and the assistance provided by the advisors was extremely usefulin improving my article and identifying potential journals for submission. It was also very
inspiring to have discussions with other young scholars from various disciplines. As my article
is highly interdisciplinary, the diversity of the participants was valuable in helping me
understand different points of view from across the academy. Furthermore, I appreciated thatthe workshop provided us with an opportunity to read our own articles in a critical way,2

Reports by the EAJS Publication Workshop Participants
placing a very strong focus on writing itself. I now have much clearer ideas about academic
publication and greater confidence in writing journal articles. I would like to take thisopportunity to thank once again the EAJS and the Japan Foundation, the sponsors, organisers
and advisors who made the workshop possible, as well as fellow participants for theircomments and advice.
Naoko Hosokawa
University of Oxford, UK
First of all, I would like to thank the organizers for enabling the first EAJS Publication Workshop
to take place, as well as the EAJS and the Japan Foundation who provided financial support.
During the course of my short career as an academic and time as a PhD student I haveattended many conferences and workshops which have allowed me to share my research withfellow academics and benefit from their feedback. Nonetheless, the format of fifteen to
twenty minute presentations followed by brief Q&A sessions is the norm, and in many ways
limits the depth of discussion. Furthermore, whilst the standard workshop format does
provide young scholars with the opportunity to polish their presentation skills, when it comesto writing-up and eventual publications, workshops based on oral presentation have limited
value. This is why the first EAJS Publication Workshop was an especially useful and enjoyable
experience. All participants shared written work in advance, and were assigned mentors,
receiving detailed comments and advice on their written work, specifically with publication inmind. Without presentations, each paper was addressed as if by an editorial board and in thisway really gave each participant—who have until now limited experience in how academic
journals operate—a strong sense of the publication process, what journal editors are looking
for, and how to address their concerns. Overall, I would say that this workshop was a great
success and of great value to participants, serving as a practical, “hands-on” introduction to
the world of publishing. For later stage PhD students and postdoctoral researchers thisworkshop strikes me as particularly beneficial, and I do hope it will be organized again.
Steven Ivings
Heidelberg University, Germany
Having recently completed my PhD thesis and now looking to submit my research to peerreviewed journals, this opportunity to participate in the EAJS Publication Workshop could nothave come at a better time. Although I had felt a bit uneasy about how the proposed formatof the event would play out, my initial doubts were soon removed and the experiment toinitiate a mock editors’ meeting turned out rather enjoyable. I believe an overall good balance
was maintained between addressing the shortcomings of the participants’ work by honest andsometimes harsh criticism and at the same time friendly and supportive atmosphere in whichsuggestions to improve were laid out. If anything could be improved about the current format
perhaps it could be made clearer next time that an advanced, proof-read draft is required: thiswould save some time and enable focusing the discussion solely on the content level. The
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prohibitively broad range of topic discussed in these more than dozen papers which fell undervarious fields of inquiry seemed like a lot of work at first but I was happy to find out that eachone of them offered some points and insights to relate to within a wider field of Japanesestudies. From this experience I would strongly argue that this pattern of bringing together
scholars from different fields in the humanities and social sciences should be maintained for
future workshops as it seems truly crucial for one’s development as a scholar to have a graspof ongoing debates and methodological options currently employed in adjacent fields of study.
I also think that a significant benefit of such events is the chance of meeting fellow emerging
young scholars while being guided by a team of more experienced colleagues in a relaxed yet
professional milieu.
Lauri Kitsnik
University of Cambridge, UK
For the first EAJS Publication Workshop in Berlin, I presented a paper about my PhD research
about illuminated scrolls and books and the pictures of the Bunshô sôshi tale in the 17th
century. As I am in my fourth PhD year and haven’t yet had the chance to submit a paper, it
was my first paper written in English. Therefore this first EAJS Publication Workshop was agood opportunity to introduce my work to the European research community and to learn themethodology about how to write a paper and how to submit it to a journal. Actually, before
the workshop my publications were papers written in Japanese for university journals and notacademic papers.
The EAJS workshop was precisely what I was searching for: a group of young researchers andexperienced scholars who shared their experience in publication and human relationships in
the research community. They rebuilt my confidence in the relevance of my research andtaught me how to make my research more appealing and understandable for publication. It
taught me particularly to not compress all of my research in one illegible paper. I also havelearned that my struggle was very common for researchers and this workshop let me see thefuture more peacefully.
Taking to heart the lessons I have learned in this workshop, I will complete the writing of my
PhD thesis next year and would like in the very near future to publish some of those results.
Delphine Mulard
INALCO, Paris, France
I was privileged to participate in the first EAJS Publication Workshop in Berlin. During the threedays of the workshop, I learned a great deal about how to publish an article in an academic
journal and how to improve my own writing. This experience would not have been possible
without the financial support from the Japan Foundation and the EAJS.
I am a second year PhD student and the topic of my PhD thesis is long-term community
reconstruction after the tsunami of 3.11 in Tohoku, Japan. I concentrate mainly on local
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understandings of place and community building and my research is a case study of the town
Yamamoto, where I conducted my fieldwork of eight months between October 2014 and May
2015. During the fieldwork, I collected qualitative data for my thesis research. This included
66 interviews with local actors in Yamamoto, observation of local activities and events as wellas acquisition of locally produced textual material concerning community building after the
3.11. Differing from the monograph PhD thesis concept, my thesis will most probably be acompilation thesis, which consists of three or four articles published in international journals
and of introduction, methodology and conclusion chapters. The article draft I submitted to theworkshop was the first article I have written for the thesis.
Aiming at finishing this form of thesis, the call for applications for the workshop seemed morethan welcome. I am grateful to be accepted and the workshop met all my expectations andeven more. The first and last sessions by the senior advisor Stephen Dodd accompanied byother advisors gave practical advice on publication, something that at least my home
university does not deal with explicitly or in depth. The format of feedback sessions was wellfunctioning and I learned a great deal not only from the feedback on my own paper, but also
from comments made about other participants’ papers.
To summarize, I gained much during the three days of the workshop: practical awarenessabout how to publish, scholarly advice on the content and form of article writing, selfconfidence to pursue my path towards the compilation thesis, and also valuable contacts withmy fellow workshop participants.
Thank you for the workshop. I truly look forward to seeing the second EAJS Publication
Workshop being organized.
Pilvi Posio
University of Turku, Finland
My preference for narrative approaches that aim at providing interpretations of Sino-JapanU.S. interaction prompted me to shy away from traditional Political Science peer-reviewed
journals that demand a minimalistic structure and mandate limited wording. Moreover, I haveshied away from publication in major peer-reviewed international journals for fear of getting
bogged down in a tiresome editing and submission process that would have compromised the
freshness of my research.
Thanks to the substantial feedback provided by senior and junior colleagues at the EAJS
Publication Workshop, I was able to learn the “rules of the (publication) game.” I was able tolearn how best to frame and how to pitch-sell an article to an international journal devoted to
the International Relations of Japan and East Asia more in general. Through the skilledguidance of Professor Verena Blechinger-Talcott, I was able to acquire the skills to devise asocial science journal article, with a lean “research puzzle” and a pertinent structure that
doesn’t get bogged down into details. I now consider myself able to bring portions of my PhD

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research as contributions to the field of Japanese foreign and security policy-making, to thequestion of leadership, and the like.
Given the substantial feedback received during the conference, I have also acknowledged the
input in one of the articles I have recently submitted for consideration at a major Poli Sci
journal. I owe an eventual (fingers crossed) successful publication also to the EAJS and theJapan Foundation. Thank you very much for your kind support!
Giulio Pugliese
Heidelberg University, Germany
The workshop promised to address almost all of the possible difficulties in the publication
process, which have actually made me shelve an idea of sending articles to academic journals.
In fact, the workshop provided me with a rather unique opportunity to get practically familiar
with the journal publication process. Firstly, the workshop introduced the concrete steps ofthe publication process. It was a valuable experience to discuss each step with experienced
and actual editors and also to hear their own experiences. I was very honored to receive an
actual review from experienced editors at the workshop site. Every participant’s article wasreviewed and discussed individually in a similar manner as an actual peer review. On this point,
I really appreciate the amount of time and effort spent on each paper for discussion and forreview prepared prior to the workshop. It was interesting to recognize that we participants
share, more or less, similar problems in writing for the particular purpose of publication. I
found that the common structural prematurity for the specific purpose of journal publication
was not simply reducible to the fact that different disciplines have different writing styles. I
believe that a continuation of the publication workshop will be especially beneficial for thefurther advancement of Japanese Studies as an interdisciplinary discipline. If I may suggest apossibility of improvement, it will be one point that we did not explicitly learn how to review
an article from a reviewer’s perspective, though it was observable in the actual review sessions.
I believe that it will be helpful for the future participants because it will enable them to see
their own or others’ articles from the reviewers’ eyes. Finally, I would like to show mygratitude to the Japan Foundation regarding their generous financial support, which made myexperience in the workshop multi-cultural, inter-disciplinary, and therefore, meaningful.
Kie Sanada
Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany
One of my academic aims while pursuing a PhD in the UK is to publish the results of myresearch based on my fieldwork in Japan. While my aim is clear, as I have progressed throughthe PhD it has become evident that the process of publishing is complex, including selecting
journals to approach and navigating the review and editing process. I am very grateful to havebeen able to participate in the EAJS publication workshop together with a stimulating groupof junior and senior scholars, and an editor. Substantially, I learnt how we should think about
what academic publications are, how to approach the processes of publications and so forth6

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through the direct experience of other scholars and the written samples of the participants.
In parallel to the group sessions, the workshop offered the great opportunity to receive
feedback and comments on our own individual paper from an assigned tutor. The tutor systemprovided a great chance to discuss more individual issues and solutions. Lastly, I would like toexpress my gratitude for all other participants and senior scholars for their critical comments
and feedback in a friendly collaborative atmosphere, and the Japan Foundation, Freie
Universität Berlin and EAJS for their generous funding to support this valuable workshop.
Hiroko Umegaki Costantini
PhD candidate, University of Cambridge
I was very fortunate to be selected for participation in the 1st EAJS Publication Workshop in
Berlin. It provided me with a great opportunity to receive feedback on my article manuscript
and to interact with PhD students and postdocs from different branches of Japanese Studies.
I had already published some articles in edited volumes but never submitted a manuscript toa peer-reviewed journal. The workshop provided me with answers to general questions like:
What journal is appropriate for my article? How do I approach the journal? How does thereview process work? And: How do I react to the reviewers’ comments?
However, the most valuable experience for me was to receive detailed individual feedback on
my manuscript by the advisors and the other participants. The comments helped me to rethinkmy publication project and sharpen my line of argument. I received valuable advice on whichjournals to approach and was encouraged to aim for publication in a prestigious journal.
Throughout, the workshop was characterized by an open and relaxed atmosphere.
Participants were not expected to present their own papers since the manuscripts should
speak for themselves. Only at the end of the discussions were authors allowed to answer
questions and reply to the others’ comments. In this way, the peer-review process was
simulated. In my opinion, this procedure helped to focus on the texts and to keep the critiques
impersonal.
The workshop convinced me that it is important to receive feedback from persons one cantrust before submitting an article. For this reason, some participants of the workshop agreed
to critically read each other’s manuscripts in the future.
All in all, I received invaluable advice and important suggestions on how to revise mymanuscript. I am sure that I will profit from this advice not only for the manuscript which was
discussed at the workshop but also for future publication projects.
David Weiß
Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Germany

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