How to get published. 2

[APankala]

I recently graduated from college and have an amazing engineering job opportunity coming down the road and it will lend me the opportunity to write some interesting articles and technical papers relating directly to my job. My question is how does one go about getting published in journals/magazines? And will my technical report be turned down if my findings and studies come from real world field experience or from a “field laboratory” environment? Basically should I take my theory and data to an academic university to collaborate with them to back my theory and finds seeing how I'm not an engineer with years of experience or a post graduate student doing research with the guidance of a professor.

 

[MikeHalloran]

Most companies don't publish what little they learn, even internally, and generally just don't want their laundry aired in public, even if it makes them look good in some contexts.

Double check with your potential employer before you get all lathered up about publishing externally. Do let us know what they say.





Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[MacGyverS2000]

What Mike said... I "publish" a lot of white/tech papers, but they're internal. It's a lot of great info that could be used by outsiders, but the company's real concern is documenting what is learned rather than helping anyone else.

Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

 

[SomptingGuy]

It depends really on who your customers are. If you work for a tier-1 supplier or a consultant, you will be encouraged to write papers. If your customer is an end user already, there's not a lot of point.

My employer actively encourages its employees to write papers for journals and engineering magazines - not even in our own time either.

- Steve

 

[Ron]

As others have noted, check with your employer. Many employers encourage publishing...others do not.

As for the "how"....most peer-reviewed journals put out "calls for papers", as do many conventions and technical gatherings. Those are usually pointed to a specific subject; however, some of the journal calls are more general.

As for technical magazines, you can submit an unsolicited paper and if their editorial staff sees merit to the subject matter and compatibility with its "mission", they will often publish. Keep in mind that their editorial staff will play with your wording and format, so be prepared to either accept such or move on.

The greater credibility comes from peer-reviewed journal articles. These are reviewed by other professionals having expertise in the subject matter and the process will take several months of back and forth "editing". Keep in mind that sometimes professionals just disagree on subject matter, so don't be discouraged if another professional disagrees with your conclusions. If several of them disagree with you, consider re-evaluating your opinions or conclusions....you might be wrong!

As for whether practical observations are acceptable...yes they are. All technical papers do not have to be academic treatises on laboratory or theoretical data. If well researched, well documented and well presented, a practical observation paper has great value to the profession and will be treated as such. Be careful that you don't load your paper with anecdotal evidence that might only apply to your situation. Make sure your observations can be ported to other applications and situations.

Good luck.

 

[jmw]

You don't have to start with "Peer Reviewed" journals.
One easy way to get published is via trade magazines. They are always on the look out for new material and often the more specialised the market sector the more difficult that is for them so any one offering them a relevant article with something new to say may be greeted like the prodigal son.

The company interest does have to be considered.
A great many companies see this as free advertising. Then too there are "advertorials" where the company gets a discounted rate for an advert to be strategically located alongside the article they have written.
Many magazines have themes for special issues and desperately need material to satisfy those themes. That's when, with some previous article writing behind you, they come hunting you.

In my case it isn't just articles but giving papers and presentations at conference. I am, even as we speak, being solicited as a "fill that gap in the schedule" speaker for a conference this summer.
Giving papers is often more fun and especially when the company picks up the expenses for everything.
I think the first I did was at a Texas A&M instrumentation symposium in collaboration with a client.
I have subsequently given papers/presentations in Buenos Aries, Monte Carlo, Antwerp, Miami, etc.

Most such conference organisers pretend to insist on no commercial content. But a well written presentation easily defeats this and still also meets the requirements of the organisers. So long as you don't present an advert, you will be OK.
Most companies and conference organisers are glad to have such papers.
Heck, one presentation I wrote and gave has been presented time and again at ISA meetings in the USA in different guises and with minor modifications by different people still employed by my then employer.
And I still see some of my earlier articles for my old employer being rehashed (sometimes simply given new authors) by them and republished. Well fair enough. They own them.

The problem usually isn't to find someone to publish but to find a new angle every time. So far, and I have written articles for a variety of trade journals over the years, I have never found it a problem.

But peer reviewed? That smacks of something a little more serious and commercially sensitive and usually is for academia.

In the real world of engineering it is results that interest as much or more than theory in my experience and in trade journals etc. They couldn't care less if you are a student or not.
n fact many articles are submitted by marketing who have simply rehashed what some engineer has given them. You will also find articles "ghosted" by companies. Most usually in support of a particular application where they write it up as if written by the client's engineer who then approves it for publication.

This applies to articles written essentially to connect the manufacturer with customers who have problems your approach solves. You are safest when you deal with a unique product, which I did. If it isn't unique you do have to be careful. Your company may be happy with showing that they can deliver the results but not broadcast how they achieve them because they don't want to help the competitors. But even that is still feasible.



JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[TheTick]

Most publications are pretty hungry for content, so finding a willing publisher will likely not be difficult. Finding one that pays, not so easy.

Start with an abstract. Don't write full articles. Shop the abstract around to suitable publications. If one is interested, then write the full article.

 

[jmw]

By the way, you didn't say, why do you want to write articles?
To promote the ideas, yourself, your company, you like writing?

What does "It will lend me the opportunity to write some interesting articles and technical papers relating directly to my job." mean?
Does this mean the company has discussed with you this possibility? If so then they will certainly give you guidance on what to write, how to write it and how to get it published.
Or does it mean that you think it is interesting enough to write about and the company has said nothing.

Motivation has a part to play and why you want to write them might not be why your company would be willing to let you write them.

Believe me.
This isn't one of those "it is better to ask forgiveness than permission" situations.

But it does make an interesting interview question that will set you apart from some other candidates.

As I've suggested above a great deal depends on commercial value either as a motive to publish or a motive to suppress.

Most companies are torn between saying enough loudly and often enough in all the right places to attract sales and saying nothing except in whispers in case the competition can benefit from what is said. The balance has to be in favour of the company not the competition.

From what you say this is a job prospect and you think you will have lots of interesting things to say. Without a good (commercial) reason to publish something most companies would rather you just got on with your work.


JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[SomptingGuy]

Most companies are torn between saying enough loudly and often enough in all the right places to attract sales and saying nothing except in whispers in case the competition can benefit from what is said. The balance has to be in favour of the company not the competition.

This sums it up very well. When I wrote my first SAE paper I was quite young (24,25?). My boss got the funding and let me at it, based on his abstract. After awhile of hacking I asked him how many secrets we were prepared to put in the public domain. I got away with two. Plus hints of a couple more.

- Steve

 

[SomptingGuy]

... and I've seen my sketches and phrases verbatim in a university journal since. Small world.

- Steve

 

[jmw]

Oh yes, SG.... that's another of the small pleasures... when some one who should know better thinks enough of your work to quote it or use extracts or simply plagiarise it.

Except the chinese web sites which just grab quantity not quality. So finding your work or your posts in forums such as this copied to their websites with a girls name replacing your name or handle on your posts doesn't give you anything like a warm feeling. High blood pressure maybe, but a warm feeling not.

I have found only one serious paper that lists one of my articles as a reference, but even one is good enough to generate a warm feeling.
It means you have in some small way and on some level been acknowledged by your peers and betters as not being a complete waste of space.

(The best feeling sometimes comes when you can disagree with some one apparently well respected and not be shot down. A polite exchange of published comments on articles is often enough!).

And if you can engage in some forums and not be howled down by your peers and betters you may find that some learned people will actually want to contact you and talk to you.

Of course, recognition of any sort by your peers and betters is one thing, persuading management of that is often something far more difficult (unless you are joining a proper engineering team or R&D with an engineer as a manager).
So don't get your hopes too high.

JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[FeX32]

and I've seen my sketches and phrases verbatim in a university journal since. Small world.

I am always flattered when others use my work or ideas I have published. It is hard sometimes giving our secrets (some of them only), but at least if you publish them, whenever someone will "use" your work or ideas they must reference you. This can build ideas between engineers.
If your work is "out of the box" enough you may even pioneer a subfield.

been acknowledged by your peers and betters as not being a complete waste of space.

LOL


Fe (IronX32)

 

[FeX32]

For the OP directly:
If you "want" to get published and already have ideas, results, etc. Then my suggestion is just to go ahead and write something up on your own time. Try to submit to a well established conference first. For example the ASME DETC if you are in the US is known to be one of the top in the world for mechanical engineering related material. It has about a 50% rejection rate.
Then you can go on to journals from there.
Of course, you need permission from your employer.


Fe (IronX32)

 

[APankala]

Thanks for the advice to ask my employer before getting started. The job/”project” is not typical and I figured my employer wouldn't mind me publishing some the things that are going through my head but some other things it could be a problem. After talking to him he's given me the green light for me to write up about pervious concrete (we have a few projects with it's use and I'm do research on it for those projects) and further material I will give him a final draft to make sure there is nothing he doesn't want to be known in the public domain.

To give a better idea of what I'm talking about this example is close enough to what we're going to do without letting the cat out of the bag. I'm to help design and build a “gated community” and right now we have the property/location picked out but haven't bought the property yet so understandably we are keeping the whole thing tight lipped right now but once the property has been bought and construction started he pretty much said any mention of our “project” in the publications will bring extra “buzz” to the “project” which is good for business.

There is one aspect of our project that will be ground braking in that it's never been done (that I have seen) but seems to be of a very sound thinking so it could potentially be the next big step in that particular environment field. Everything that is coming to mind I feel worth writing about and share to my peers is connected to being “green.”

The reason for me to want to get published is to share my research in a subject that doesn't get much attention, to advance the knowledge in various fields of science, and to improve my career (bring some meat to my resume). But the ultimate satisfaction is to help further the engineering field and know I've made the world a better place indirectly from other people using my knowledge gained in their own projects.

Guess all I need to do now is finish up my testing, collect the data, write up my findings, and send it off to different publications to see who will want to publish it. I feel fairly confident it will be published since pervious concrete isn't as well researched as I hoped it was. A colleague and I have come up with lots of questions and found little to no answers to so we are doing the leg work to find the answers and I figured it would be good material to share.

Architects and engineers are among the most fortunate of men since they build their own monuments with public consent, public approval and often public money.
- John Prebble -

 

[ntweisen]

You can very easily self publish your own work through Amazon's CreateSpace (paperback) and Kindle Direct Publishing (ebook).

http://excelspreadsheetshelp.blogspot.com

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