Customer Reviews

Writing for Scholarly Publication

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I would strongly recomment this book for anyone who writes for an academic audience. It provides an excllent set of ideas for the novice as well as helpful reminders for the experienced academic.

Dr. Karl Moore, Templeton College, Oxford University

A very well organised book that does well to frame itself for both experienced academics and those starting out. I particularly enjoyed the exercises, these added a great deal of value to the starting process of writing and motivated me to start writing! (almost fools you into doing it, before you know where you are theres a half decent paper in the making on your desk in front of you).

I have only one issue with the book as it stands - and this is small. The chapter on presentation (9) seemed a little out of place (as in conference presentation not written), perhaps a stronger link between this and its relevance for academic writing may have been made.

Otherwise a very engaging book thats written to be easily digested and acted upon. I defy anyone having read this not to walk away feeling energised about the prospect of getting your ideas out into the academic community.

More please ! perhaps a text for PhD candidates specifically?

This is written for academics in the field of organisational theory (and adjacent fields). The book provides very useful advice of how to get your manuscript published.

The book doesn't say much what is really a good manuscript because the book is about getting published. That is not the same as having something valuable to say. If you have a crappy manuscript and adhere to the advice in this book, you still increase your chances of having your manuscript published. If you have a good manuscript you still need to adhere to the advice in this book. So you still need to read this book.

If your ambition level is to write a good manuscript (in addition to being published) you should also read Van de Ven's "Engaged Scholarship" (quite simple, practical) and Elster's "Explaining Social Behaviour" (more complex, theoretical, abstract) plus relevant articles that you are exposed to only in good PhD programmes.

I have found this book to be invaluable. Huff does not just give tips about good writing, but has designed concrete exercises that help the reader sharpen the focus and impact of of their written work. Huff encourages the reader to think of publication in terms of joining a conversation, an excellent strategy for writing work that will get published. Highly recommended for any academic author in the social sciences or humanities... and probably the sciences too! Buy it!

This book mostly gets the job done for its intended audience - graduate students and professors who strive to be published in leading academic journals - while dispensing with less focused writing tips that would cater to more general readers. However, I'm going to have to contradict the positive reviews here and point out some weaknesses in this book's structure and focus. This is not an essential purchase for anyone who is not academically required to buy the book. In short, even though Huff's recommendations are focused and usually insightful, they rarely rise above the obvious. I did not learn anything from this book that I haven't already learned from my trusted and experienced academic advisors, who have given me the same advice in a more personable, less structured, and far less expensive fashion. That makes this book more of an exercise in publishing and retailing, rather than expert advice. Meanwhile, about the first third of this meager book is wasted on the weak concept of "conversants," which is merely a new-age label for the shockingly obvious art of building a network of academic peers and advisors, while Huff's frequent exercises are occasionally useful writing endeavors but are more often vague milestones and benchmarks. And finally, this book of less than 200 pages of text (which includes six highly padded and repetitive appendices) is docked one more star for its monstrously excessive retail price, which is not Huff's fault, but the publisher loses points for exploiting its customer base. [~doomsdayer520~]

The core message of this book is that research is an ongoing conversation. The metaphor is one of the most useful, yet unobviously obvious idea that is worth its weight in gold for anyone who peer reviews research or does scientific research. While the other, negative reviewer might argue that there no need to buy this book if that's all it says, it's the book pragmatic guidance in bringing the idea to life that makes it valuable. This book shows how to walk the walk.

She argues that if a new research paper adds something new to an ongoing scientific "conversation," it is worth accepting. In almost a decade of conducting academic research, it is this conversation metaphor that has helped me become a constructive reviewer of others' research, and in turn, plausibly a better researcher.

This skill of "joining the conversation" was the one seemingly-obvious but critical thing that my years of doctoral training never taught me. It took me years to realize and fully appreciate the value of this book's core message. Which is why I think that it is worth every penny of its thirty seven dollar price.

Highly recommended for anyone who conducts and evaluates scientific research.