Tuesday (or very early Wednesday morning) I did it. I submitted a paper to The American Society for Information Science & Technology (
ASIS&T). While I did not do this alone (thanks
Lupita,
Chirag, and Pam), it sure felt like I was come 4:30am. Oi, it was a long (lonely) night.
The week before was unexpectedly rough, and did as unexpected family things can certainly do to a schedule, which made for a not so pleasant Tuesday deadline. The entire day I was cursing myself for having thought research was a good idea:
“What was I thinking?”
“Why am I writing this? School is finished for summer.”
I must say, despite questioning my ambitions, the next day I felt pretty good about myself. I can honestly say if I wouldn’t have been up editing this paper would not have gotten submitted. No one else had time (or energy?) to get this thing pushed to the end. My group was pooped.
Even if it doesn’t get accepted, it’s a piece I’m proud of.
It was definitely a learning experience for me as well, not just the topic of the paper (privacy habits of Millennials in social networking sites), but the process of putting a paper together. A lesson well learned I assure you.
If you’re looking to publish, the crucial steps are all set up. It’s very easy to be guided through the basic steps of research, so I’ll spare the details. Here are six lessons I’ve learned that are not in the books.
First- Do your own literature review (at the very least, play a very large role): As much as someone goes over the documents they would like to have included in the paper, when it comes to writing you’ll have no idea what’s going on in this integral piece of the work.
Second- When working on a time sensitive project, only work with people you know you work with well. Do not try and jump into a project with someone whom you have never met. Although this person may be very sweet, there is no telling what types of things that are seen as a priority and what are not, and there may be conflicts.
Third- When conflict arises and people seem confused, take charge. Make the project your own and delegate work rather than waiting around for people who had taken leadership to continue in this role.
Fourth- Know all of your team mates writing styles BEFORE you need to start writing. This will help when sorting through everyone’s work and making it one. It will also help to know who writes most eloquently when in a tough spot.
Fifth- Have every member of the team write the methodology section independently then compare as a group. This way everyone is on the same page as to what information the group is looking for, how it’s going to be found, and how the data will be analyzed.
Sixth- Write a paper you can be proud of. People are going to read it and you want to be taken seriously.
When I read over the paper I can spot all the details I helped gather, ideas I had, themes I discovered (the paper was based on questions I thought up), tid-bits from my interviews, and the sections I wrote well the first time. All that thinking ahead I did in the beginning paid off big when it came to writing.The piece is going to be read as one, but to me certain parts shine brighter because their mine and I'm allowed to be proud of them.
I look back and think of the weeks I spent thinking of how to put this project together, how I thought about the details I wanted to include in the paper for weeks before they were written down, and how good it felt at 4:46am on a Wednesday to lay down in my bed and know I have accomplishing something, a milestone of sorts, and now have very little on my agenda for the summer.
It feels good.
