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How soon after enrolling in Publication Academy can our program begin?
Access to the On Demand courses in your Publication Academy program can begin within one calendar week of enrolling a new cohort, and your cohort’s first group-based supervision session (for applicable programs) can take place within one to two weeks of enrollment. If you would like On Demand course access or supervision sessions to begin later than when enrollment is completed, this can also be arranged.
How long do we have access to the Publication Academy courses in our program?
From the time access is granted to the On Demand courses in your Publication Academy program, your cohort will have one year (365 calendar days) to complete them. Upon successful completion of each course’s quiz, participants will receive a Certificate of Completion but will no longer have access to the course video. That said, participants will have access to a PDF copy of each course’s PowerPoint presentation to keep, and they are able to view the course video as many times as they desire before taking the quiz.
What day and time are group-based supervision sessions held?
Group-based supervision sessions are held on a biweekly basis on a day of the week and at a time that is mutually agreed upon by your organization and Publication Academy.
Will there be anyone other than members of our cohort in the group-based supervision sessions?
Provided there are a minimum of 20 individuals in your cohort, group-based supervision sessions will be comprised of only participants enrolled by your organization. If fewer than 20 individuals are in your cohort, participants enrolled by other organizations may also be included, providing opportunities for cross-organizational collaboration.
Is there a maximum cohort size for Publication Academy programs?
Although there is no maximum cohort size for Publication Academy programs, if more than 20 participants are enrolled, research recommends that participants be divided into multiple cohorts so that group-based supervision sessions can provide adequate opportunities for individualized attention.
Who is the facilitator for the group-based supervision sessions?
The principal facilitator for the group-based supervision sessions is Jay Singh, PhD, a Fulbright Scholar who has authored over 80 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters as well as 5 books. He completed his graduate doctoral studies in psychiatry at the University of Oxford and clinical psychology at Universität Konstanz, and he was named the youngest tenured Full Professor in Norway before accepting faculty appointments at the University of Cambridge as well as the University of Pennsylvania. He is the only psychology professor to have lectured for all eight Ivy League universities (Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Cornell, Brown, Dartmouth, UPenn) as well as both Oxford and Cambridge. Dr. Singh has given keynote speeches at leading academic conferences on six continents, and his work has been featured in leading newspapers such as The Washington Post and magazines such as People.
Don’t all academics already know how to publish?
No – Research suggests that most academics have no formal training in writing for publication and have developed their skills mainly through an inefficient process of trial and error. In terms of post-graduate training, only 15% of graduate students and post-doctoral fellows report having been required to take a course or workshop on academic writing or publishing skills, and over 60% of both groups report that they feel unprepared for publishing (Glew et al., 2014).
Do Publication Academy programs focus on publishing in any specific field?
Publication Academy programs are ideal for professionals in the social sciences (e.g., psychology, sociology, anthropology) and the natural sciences (e.g., medicine, biology, astronomy). Although there are different publishing conventions for professionals in the humanities (e.g., literature, art history, philosophy), business, and law, such professionals are still encouraged to attend in order to promote cross-disciplinary collaboration. Such collaboration necessitates an understanding of publishing conventions in the sciences. If you are uncertain as to whether Publication Academy programs would be a fit for your field, please e-mail us at support@publicationacademy.com.
Are Publication Academy programs beneficial for professionals who already have extensive experience in publishing?
Yes – Publication Academy programs provide numerous benefits to professionals who already have extensive publishing experience. Our proprietary templates significantly increase the speed at which experienced professionals can prepare high-quality manuscripts for publication, automating key documents throughout the publishing process such as pre-submission inquiries, cover letters, peer-review responses, and much more! As an additional benefit, experienced professionals can “outsource” training in academic writing and publishing for their staff, mentees, or students to Publication Academy, resulting in significant time-savings which can be spent on producing even more cutting-edge publications.
Can Publication Academy programs train me to publish in English, if I am a non-native English speaker?
Yes – Publication Academy has trained professionals in 17 non-native English-speaking countries to increase their success rate in publishing in English. In fact, Publication Academy offers the most comprehensive online training available to help non-native English speakers to master academic writing (www.publicationacademy.com/course/english).
Can Publication Academy programs train me to publish, if I am not an academic?
Yes – In Publication Academy’s Beta Test, 70% of our non-academic participants successfully published within one year of completing their program. Although some professionals may have “Imposter Syndrome” when starting their program, either due to a lack of experience in publishing or not being affiliated with a university, research has found that academic writing and publishing programs result in similar publication rate increases in both academics as well as non-academics (Frantz & Amosun, 2011). In addition, a recent study found there to be no impact of an author’s affiliation on the likelihood that their manuscripts will be accepted or rejected (Paiva et al., 2017).
How does Publication Academy track the success of program participants?
During your organization’s program, Publication Academy can track enrollment and completion of On Demand courses via its proprietary Learning Management System (LMS), as well as attendance at group-based supervision sessions via WebEx. As part of completing each On Demand course, participants are required to fill-out an online evaluation form. These evaluation forms measure participant satisfaction as well as whether the course content contributed to achieving both professional and personal goals. Upon completing the program, Publication Academy can track the number and rate of new publications using a combination of self-report (collected via digital survey software) and Google Scholar.
What does it cost to enroll in a Publication Academy program?
Publication Academy aims to provide affordable pricing for its best-in-class programs. Pricing is based on the contract term in years and the number of enrollees committed per year, with discounts available for longer terms and multiple cohorts. We encourage clients to consider a multi-year contract with Publication Academy to maximize return on investment in the form of increased publication rates. Please contact us at support@publicationacademy.com so we can prepare a pricing proposal tailored to your unique needs and goals.
Would a Publication Academy instructor be willing to participate in our annual conference, either as a guest speaker or as a trainer for a workshop?
Yes – Publication Academy would be happy to send to your conference one of its world-renowned publishing experts from prominent institutions including Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge, UPenn, NASA, the Smithsonian, PBS, and Discovery Channel.
Does Publication Academy have an established method to help us identify who would benefit most from your programs?
Yes – Publication Academy will provide you with a customized digital survey for potential enrollees to rate their interest in receiving premiere training in a variety of skillsets pertaining to academic writing and publishing, as well as their perceived confidence in applying those skillsets. The findings of these digital surveys are then shared with your decision-makers, with recommendations on which Publication Academy program would be the ideal fit for producing positive outcomes.
Can Publication Academy split an invoice among different departments who wish to enroll participants in your programs?
Yes – Publication Academy is happy to accommodate requests to split invoices among different departments which would like to enroll participants in this manner.
We would benefit from enrolling in a Publication Academy program, but our operating budget does not have a specific provision to fund such an initiative. Can Publication Academy guide us in securing external funding such that we can enroll?
Yes – If you are committed to pursuing funding to secure a Publication Academy program, our team will conduct prospect research to identify external funding opportunities with the best goodness-of-fit. Publication Academy will then provide your Sponsored Research Personnel (or equivalent) with a proprietary Grant Template Packet containing all information needed on Publication Academy so as to expedite the process of applying for those external funding opportunities. Our team will be available to support you every step of the way!
We already enroll people in a class on publishing research at a local university (or on-site), so what would be the advantage to enrolling them in a Publication Academy program instead?
On-campus and on-site classes on academic writing for publication are wonderful resources, but Publication Academy’s self-paced programs provide over 600% more course content than the next closest competitor. Our evidence-based programs are proven to increase participant rates of publication between 50% to over 500% over a two-year period, according to a recent study with a $2B private foundation. Furthermore, Publication Academy’s programs embrace a unique template-based pedagogy that automates critical publishing tasks to help participants save time, increase productivity, and maximize the likelihood of publication. Due to our hybrid learning model which incorporates both On Demand courses as well as group-based supervision sessions via live webinars, Publication Academy is more economical, more convenient, more collaborative, and has been proven to produce better results than on-campus classes.
Would Publication Academy be able to help us design a multi-year program and then run it?
Yes – Publication Academy has years of experience in designing multi-year customized programs and then running them. It will be our pleasure to work with you to do the same in order to accomplish your unique goals.
Why would Publication Academy’s programs be of interest to foundations which exclusively give out grants?
A foundation’s investment in its grantees via enrollment in a Publication Academy program is one of the most effective ways to generate the best “return on investment” (ROI). The ROI for foundations is how much public good has been done, based on the funding they allocate for specific projects. If a team has received funding from a foundation on the basis of a grant proposal, they will have already specified a project objective, a product or service designed to meet that objective, and an evaluation procedure to measure whether that objective has been met using the product or service. Upon completion of the project, the team will produce a report which presents their findings on whether the product or service met the objective in accordance with the evaluation methods specified in the proposal. Teams often do not realize that this is research, and Publication Academy’s programs will help transform those reports into publishable manuscripts!
By publishing the findings of funded projects, foundations can multiply their current impact, improve its brand image and name recognition, establish innovative evidence-based best practices, and more effectively achieve their mission via the increased credibility and large-scale dissemination brought about by publishing in peer-reviewed journals, academic books, conference proceedings, and other respected sources.
Foundations stand to gain competitive differentiation by supplying high-quality training to grantees in how to improve their academic writing and publishing skills, creating a new generation of thought leaders tied to their organization. Building a reputation for supporting the professional growth of funding recipients will uniquely position foundations to attract more qualified applicants to compete for their grants.
Why are Publication Academy programs particularly beneficial for Institutions of Higher Education?
Among the most effective ways an Institution of Higher Education can advance in national and international rankings is to support their faculty and students in developing their capacity to publish. However, research suggests that most academics have no formal training in writing for publication. Only 15% of graduate students and post-doctoral fellows report having been required to take a course or workshop on academic writing or publishing skills, and over 60% of both groups report that they feel unprepared for publishing. That said, survey and interview research has established that graduate students and post-doctoral fellows are motivated to enhance their writing skills via participation in programs like Publication Academy, especially because being published before applying for tenure track positions increases visibility and improves the likelihood of international faculty collaborations. In fact, participation in an academic writing and publishing program has been found to not only increase manuscript quality and rates of publication but also to promote career advancement, with a previous study having found that half of program participants go onto higher-level academic positions within two years of program completion.
The pursuit of scholarly productivity has been found to evoke stress and frustration not only in students but also in a majority of faculty members, whose career advancement is closely linked to their publication portfolios. A seminal survey by the UCLA Higher Education Research Institute of more than 40,000 US faculty members revealed that 26% of professors spent 0 hours per week writing and that 27% had never published a peer-reviewed journal article. In the two years before the survey, 43% of faculty members had not published a single paper. These low rates of publication output have been confirmed in additional surveys conducted throughout the past 20 years.
It is important for Institutions of Higher Education to encourage publication, as there is a strong association between research output and university reputation, impacting enrollment rates, faculty and graduate student retention, and external funding opportunities. Many countries use ratings assigned by a panel of assessors – based on an Institute of Higher Education’s number of new publications (scored on originality, significance, and rigor), whether they were journal articles or other forms of publication, the impact factor of journals in which publications appeared, and overall citation counts – to inform the allocation of future government funding. Examples of countries with such national assessments of research excellence include Australia, Denmark, England, Hong Kong, New Zealand, and South Africa among others. Economic analyses in such countries have shown that the cost of academic writing and publishing skills programs such as Publication Academy are marginal, given that the incremental government funding received as a result of the increased publication rate can amount to over $3 million USD per institution.
Does Publication Academy license its curricula to be offered as a credit course to graduate or undergraduate students at Institutions of Higher Education?
Yes – Publication Academy is happy to discuss your institution’s needs and to explore potential partnerships of mutual benefit.
