For many new PhD holders, the first few weeks, months, and years after the doctoral defence can represent a time of new opportunities, horizons, and adventures. Yet other aspects of the whole experience can also bring certain challenges, and the potential difficulties facing early-career researchers are well-known. Indeed, the general uncertainty provoked by the COVID-19 pandemic has served to heighten the latent insecurity and precariousness that can be overwhelming to many new academics, including with regard to issues such as lack of guidance and mentorship as well as job insecurity. This can be accompanied by pressure to publish often, in prestigious outlets, and in English.
In this vein, Scholarly Publication Trajectories of Early-career Scholars: Insider Perspectives therefore represents an important addition to the relevant literature. Edited by the experienced scholars Pejman Habibie (Western University) and Sally Burgess (University of La Laguna), it draws together the voices of over a dozen researchers – working primarily but not exclusively in fields relating to applied linguistics – who are mostly near the beginning of their academic careers. Indeed, the work is distinguished by a remarkable range of contributions from many different countries, backgrounds, and academic traditions. As Brian Paltridge observes in his foreword to the work, this book reflects on many of the practicalities and pitfalls faced by early career academics in their career as scholarly writers. In adopting primarily autoethnographic approaches, each chapter provides an illuminating account that is both theoretically grounded yet at the same time highly relevant to professional practice.