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Tips for new faculty: how do you get paper feedback after grad school?

In our June “how can we help you?” thread, a reader asks:

I just graduated and will be starting a TT job in the fall, and I am trying to figure out the best way to manage the publication process without the support that grad school often provides.

Here are some specific questions:

1) How many people do you send papers to before sending them to journals? Who are they? Is it common to send papers to journals without having other eyes on them as one gets more and more experience publishing?

Surely some people will recommend conferences, but in my experience a lot of conferences don’t seem to offer the kind of detailed, groundbreaking feedback that leads me to make major changes to my papers, so I feel like only doing that would leave something important missing.

2) Relatedly, I have seen advice to not send papers to potential referees for feedback for fear of shrinking the referee pool, but I am also keenly aware that it is advantageous to an early career scholar to develop solid relationships with senior people in one’s subfield. I would have thought that one of the best ways to build such relationships (as well as improve my papers) would be to ask for their feedback on my work. Is this incorrect, or perhaps something that is more of a grad student move and less advantageous for someone with a TT job? If so, how does one go about making the kinds of relationships that will allow one to improve one’s work, get a sense of how others view one’s work, etc., so that one can help establish oneself in their relevant subfield.

All good questions!

What do other readers do? And how would you answer the OP’s questions in (1) and (2)?

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6 responses to “Tips for new faculty: how do you get paper feedback after grad school?”

  1. peppers

    1 as many people as possible. non-specialists can tell you what your paper is actually saying to the reader, as opposed to what you intended to say. and obviously, specialists can tell you what’s working and not working with your thesis, argument, etc…

    conferences can be good for feedback, but I think of conferences more as a way to get my ideas out there. and if you put together a stellar presentation, I wouldn’t be surprised if people in the audience, including senior people, ask to see the written version of your talk.

    2 one way to expand your writing community is to email the author of an article you found to be especially useful for your research. what did you find useful? why? I myself love to learn when my work is having an impact on someone else’s stuff and am happy to have a back and forth a bit.

    Reply
  2. Anonymous

    I’ve been there. My phd supervisor is one of the publication powerhouses, and I felt very insecure after graduation. But I eventually moved beyond grad school, and now feel more like an independent scholar. I celebrated the acceptance of a manuscript — one that no faculty from my former grad school has read — 4 years out of grad school.

    I have co-authors. They also read my single authored papers. I have friends who work on completely different things. I get them to take a look. I also occasionally send some drafts to well established scholars that I already have personal connections, but do this sparingly. This sort of covers “like minded people” “people who have no relevant background” and “people who know a lot about relevant issues.”

    But basically, I get at most 3 trusted people to read before I submit to journals. At some point, well, let’s just say, it’s impossible to incorporate every good suggestion. When getting people to read, I almost always just explicitly ask “are there glaring mistakes” and “are there things a not extremely charitable reviewer would complain about?”

    Reply
  3. Michel

    Usually 0.

    For a while, I relied on conferences for feedback, but honestly they’re not a good vehicle for that except insofar as you get a kind of feel for the room, and it forces you to think about the structure of your paper.

    Since COVID, I basically never send them to anyone, with occasional exceptions (including just a few weeks ago, when I asked my friendly subfield acquaintances on FB whether anyone would be willing to have a look at any of the chapters of a book I’m writing, because it’s close to my heart and a bit weird).

    After you’ve published a bit, I think you can develop a pretty good sense of when things are ready/ready enough.

    Reply
  4. Anonymous

    I think it is part of your job to cultivate such a network. Think of it as an investment with a 25 year return. It is bad practice to just send papers into journals that have not been scrutinized by others. And I do understand that some people work in quite isolated situations. But one reason journals are clogged with submissions is that people just send their stuff in, creating a huge demand for referees. I have found conference presentations useful – you sometimes hear the most outrageous reading of your own argument. This is a signal – you need to clarify your argument. Also, when I worked in a small department we committed to a colloquia among ourselves. It was useful in many ways, including signaling to the administration that something was happening in our department. And it kept is us active and engaged. Gradually, you will ahve developed a group who can help.

    Reply
  5. recentlytenured

    The advice above is good!

    I would recommend starting a workshopping group for yourself and other early-career folks. I was in two – one for early career folks at my institution, and one for early career folks in my subspecialty (but on Zoom, since none of us were local to one another). We meet roughly once a month and rotate looking at each other’s drafts (I was a couple of months ago, and will be up in a couple of months again). It is very helpful and good for building community.

    Whatever you do, do not cold email big-deal philosophers with your paper. Relationships of mentorship and feedback and such need to emerge organically from people you meet at conferences, etc. In my experience, big-deal people are often generous with their time if you impress them in real life and will offer to look at your work. Make sure that you take advantage of such offers and that you position yourself to receive them (go to conferences, give good/interesting talks, etc.)

    I agree, also, with Michel above that over time it gets easier to tell when something is ready or not.

    Reply
  6. Anonymous

    I never cracked this problem, and it definitely held back my publishing. I tried conferencing and other networking, but never managed to build a group of readers. I think it is probably easier if your research focus is in a subfield that is large–mine was very small. I’ve published enough that I’m a full professor now, but it is rare that anyone reads a paper of mine before I send it to a journal.

    Reply

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