The very first day of my first doctoral seminar, my professor discussed the importance of choosing research projects one is passionate about as it will be a very long road to publication and one must truly believe in the importance of such projects to persevere. At the time, I thought I understood the value of such advice. Yet, as I near a decade since my first doctoral seminar, I am in a much better position to understand and appreciate the significance of my professor’s words.
I still strongly believe in the value of my dissertation, which I began working on in the Summer of 2014. Yet, it has been a challenging and often discouraging journey in my attempts to publish out of this work. I have received countless rejections to date, some publication attempts having gone through two or three rounds of review before eventual rejection. I recognize that I have been aiming to publish in very top-tier publications with extremely low acceptance rates and that the amount of time that I can focus on research is often more limited than I would like, given the nature of working at a teaching-focused institution. Plus, as I mentioned on the previous page in talking about interdisciplinary research, I realize it is more difficult to publish research with interdisciplinary roots when management scholars are often deeply ingrained in one primary theoretical perspective.
However, I am continuing to press on. I currently have a co-authored paper under revise and resubmit at Journal of Business Ethics (a Financial Times – 50 journal) after receiving a rejection (after a reject and resubmit to Organization Science, a top tier and Financial Times – 50 journal). I also have a co-authored paper stemming from my dissertation work under revise and resubmit at Business & Society after receiving a rejection earlier this year (which went through three rounds of review at Human Relations, a Financial Times – 50 journal). I am also adapting my publication outlet targets for the other research projects I am advancing to set my sights on solid, but more achievable journal outlets.