I am humbled that my paper w/ S Babb received the Best Article Award in Global & Transnational Soc.

A personal thread–hopefully helpful for junior scholars–on what I learnt about academia & publishing by doing cross-disciplinary work in political economy. https://twitter.com/Kentikelenis/status/1136588407621193730?s=20

First, on which research topics matter:

When I started studying international financial institutions (esp. IMF & World Bank) in 2011, it was seen as a fringe topic, compared to core areas of sociological research like inequality, poverty, race, gender or demography.

The idea that global financial arrangements can be the object of *sociological* study was occasionally dismissed or viewed with kind condescension (‘good luck publishing *that* in ASR/AJS’).

When - as a visiting PhD student in US - I caught an elevator with a famous prof, he asked me what I study, and my response elicited: 'Is THIS what sociologists study in the UK? Hm.'

I recall feeling terrified that I am working on a topic with no future or publication potential

Nonetheless, I stuck to my interests, partly thinking that if I cannot study what I want, then I might as well move to a different profession.

Enormous professional anxiety did not abate, but I was conscious that there were other career paths out there too.

Early on in my PhD, a mentor gave me the best academic advice I ever received:

'Some social scientists are motivated by studying problems in the real world, while others focus on addressing problems in some literature; do the former, as that is what will keep you motivated.'

Of course, one can do both & that is what I try to do

But IMO the important point for junior scholars has to do w/ maintaining motivation by studying something you enjoy, rather what you/ your supervisors think is publishable in a top journal (with a 6% acceptance rate anyway)

In my case, most of what I have written stems from my attempt to understand the eurozone crisis (which affected me & my family), even though I have barely written on the €zone crisis per se.

It served as motivation to use social scientific tools to understand global capitalism.

Second, publishing can take a loooooong time.

This paper took 8 years from inception to publication: 1yr planning, 2yrs data collection/analysis, & the rest was taken up by trying to find the appropriate theoretical story to fit our findings (plus a rejection & AJS peer-review)

It took a lot to keep motivation to work on this paper, and I was enormously fortunate to have a fantastic coauthor who also believed in the merits of the project.

As Adam Przeworski tells students, "This is the job: you rewrite, and you rewrite, and you rewrite."

Of course, rewriting/revising can be fun, but the top half of the paper (theoretical framing and contribution) has been rewritten too many times to count.

This means that it probably helps to have article projects that you know will progress at different paces.

Some can be straightforward contributions to a subfield, others can mix-and-match insights from different fields or disciplines

The latter are often harder to pitch, but potentially hold a large payoff. They also need more stamina to find the right angle.

But if you really believe in your project, I suggest you persevere and submit the best possible paper to the best possible journal.

Given payoffs of top journal pubs, you don't want to 'burn' your chances of publishing there by submitting a paper that is not yet smooth enough.

Third, if you are doing cross-disciplinary work, keep an eye out for publication opportunities in neighbouring fields. Some methods/arguments may be appeal more to scholars in those fields.

Trying to speak to different audiences can be fun and gives you broader visibility.

For example, check out the fantastic work of @lulusouzaleao whose work on the rise of randomized control trials in international development speaks to core debates both in sociology and development studies. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0305750X19304309

Or the great studies by @_kvelasco, whose work on global LGBT politics is making major contributions both in sociology and in international relations.

https://academic.oup.com/isq/article-abstract/64/1/120/5556052

Fourth, actively seek out advice from people who have done such cross-disciplinary work.

I was very timid about writing to people at first ( #firstgen), but learnt how/when to do it.

At worst, your email will receive no response.

Finally and perhaps most importantly given the state of the academic job market, I found it helpful to keep things in perspective:

There are great options outside academia and we have skills that are relevant for policy, journalism, think-tanks, and business.

I occasionally wonder whether doing endless revisions for journal articles (esp. for some troubled papers) that will go behind a paywall is the best allocation of my time on earth.

It can be fun, but it can also be gruesome and high-stakes for early career scholars.

There are many other ways to make an impact (perhaps a bigger impact?) on the world than academic publishing, and there are major crises going on that require social scientific skills to analyse and respond to.

/end