For the next two weeks, I am going to explore various aspects of book publishing. In the past, I discussed the importance of knowing when and if to choose a book over articles. In some disciplines, you must write or edit a book(s) to get tenure. In others, books are valuable, but are not required. There are other disciplines where edited books are viewed as being of less value than a high quality peer reviewed article, or than an authored book. If you are on the tenure track, or hoping to get there, you really need to think though these issues carefully.
So, ready, set, and get ready to explore the world of edited academic book writing and publishing.
This is definitely a topic I would like to hear more about. I have often wondered about the value of both being a contributor and being an editor for an edited volume. It is unclear to me in my field within the humanities where exactly these lie. Certainly they are lower than a monograph, but how do they compare to peer-reviewed articles?
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment. I will make sure to address the notion of the importance of edited book to one's scholarly profile. I have written about it in the past, but cannot locate it at the moment (the problem now with having written almost 150 posts now! I will make sure to address it over the next two weeks.
ReplyDeleteIn general though, I would say it really very much depends on your country, your university, and your department (and of course, your discipline). It takes FAR more work that one article, so I don't see this as a bang for your buck way of getting tenure. As a way of establishing reputation nationally or internationally, however, it is a good thing. More in the blog!