862652

Course
Publishing journal articles in Business and Organization Studies

Faculty
Professor Robin Holt and Professor Christian Borch, both from the Departement of Management, Politics and Philosophy at Copenhagen Business School

Course Coordinator
Professor Robin Holt

Prerequisites
Registered on compatible PhD-programme. In order to receive the course diploma, participants have to be present during the whole course period.

Think of a paper and/or journal that will form the basis of discussion on Day 1. You will be asked to talk about the choice. It is does not have to be something you like, but certainly something that provokes you into thinking about the nature of publishing.

Prior to the course starting all students will be expected to submit a written piece of work. This will be in the form of a draft paper, or part thereof, that will form the basis for discussion in class. Consideration should be given to the nature and substance of what is submitted, so how it can be worked at as a paper both during and then after the class. Deadline for submission: 13 March 2017.

Aim
The aim of this course is to introduce participants to process of knowledge production in business and organization studies through the practice of peer review publication. There are two aspects to this. First considering the nature of academic knowledge production, and secondly the craft of writing and participating in the peer review process. As such this is not purely a practical how to course, but requires participants to consider actively and reflexively the uses to which academic knowledge is put, and the conditions of ‘its’ generation.

The intent is not just to take participants through the demands of producing written work from studies suitable for academic, but to do so having experienced critical engagement with the nature of theory, empirics and knowledge claims.

Presentations from the academic lead will be used, but the emphasis will be a discursive one, involving participants in conversations, presentations and group work. Participants should come prepared to discuss not only others but there own work, and to comment on that of others in constructive and substantive debate.

Whilst quantitative work is in no way precluded and much of the course remains relevant for either qualitative and quantitative work, the discussion on the nature of knowledge production will take in ideas from philosophy, cultural theory, the humanities and technology studies. Relatedly, the academic staff teaching on the course have largely been involved in qualitative work. The emphasis will not be on the technicalities of methodological approaches or methods, but on the kind of knowledge they create - for example how hypotheses and concepts work within a wider practice of verification which, in the social sciences, can be traced back to the logical positivists, or the sympathy between narrative methods in ethnography and fiction.

Course content
As the course blends academic writing with scholarly discussion on the nature of knowledge production, dissemination and use, the content will include consideration of the following:

  • The craft of writing papers
  • Analysis of knowledge production in business and organization studies
  • The nature of a research design. For example, is this the search for gaps, or problem centred?
  • The nature of relevance and rigour, linked to Mode I and Mode II theorising. Is this a tired debate?
  • The role of humanities in business and organization studies research.
  • What is it to claim or propose (proposition) something as being true or factual? Discussing and analyzing the function of concepts and categories.
  • Research practice and ethics
  • Is there an opposition between quantitative and qualitative work?
  • Crafting publishable articles – motivation, research questions, theory building, structuring.
  • The art of reviewing and handling reviewers and editors.
  • Understanding distinctions between journals, subjects, approaches and fields.

Teaching style
The form of the seminar is a combination of lectures, presentations. The academic lead is Professor Robin Holt, the current editor of the journal Organization Studies. He will be present throughout. In addition Professor Christian Borch will be present during the second day to discuss differences across journals, different forms of approach, and expectations concerning the nature of knowledge and knowledge claims.

Lecture plan
Day One
10.00 – 10.20

Introductions

10.20 – 11.00


The nature of knowledge production – theoretical debates in the Vienna School, Frankfurt School and scepticism, and specifically in the field of management and organization studies. Robin Holt

Taking in the following debates:

Constructing knowledge and the limits of knowledge (see Latour, Chia and Holt)

Theory and gap spotting (see Law, Sutton and Staw)

Critical thinking (see Parker) and problem-centred work (see Foucault)

11.00 – 11.15

Tea/Coffee

11.15 – 12.30


What is the role of an academic journal?

The session will begin with a talk based on experiences of editing the journal Organization Studies
12.30 - 13.30

 Lunch

13.30 – 15.30


Participants will then join in open discussion, in part based on their having already been asked to think about a journal and/or paper of their choice prior to the course. Consideration will be given to how the participants understand the relationship between their work, the academic journal as an institution, and the field or discipline of business and organization studies more broadly (see Butler).  

15.00 – 15.30

Tea Coffee

15.30 – 17.30


Continued into group work on the uses of academic knowledge and what knowledge does. Participants will be encouraged to think critically about their own production of knowledge claims, on the possible uses to which these might be put and how these can be translated into, and or transformed through, the process of submission and publication

Day Two

9.00 – 11.00


Approaching journals

Robin Holt and Christian Borch

This session looks at the journal landscape, and how to find ways through it, without presuming an overview. This will include critical discussions of the criteria by which journals are assessed and institutional pressures by which they are framed (impact factors, downloads, sales, professionalism) and other organizational forms making up the field (publishers, learned societies, libraries, search engines)

Means of getting to know journals:

 

  • Special issues
  • Reviewing
  • The editorials
  • Conferences and workshops

11.00 – 11.15

Coffee/Tea

11.15 - 12.30


What is a ‘good’ academic paper

Discussing the structure, content and style. This session will continue with presentations then open discussion, in relation to the participant’s own papers, as well as bringing in theoretical discussions from Day One and going through examples of ‘good’ academic papers (see also Woolf and Orwell).

12.30 - 13.30

Lunch

13.30 – 15.00


Types of paper – essays, theory papers, empirics

Robin Holt and Christian Borch

Motivations for studies/papers – gap finding, problem centred research, provocation, assaying etc.

Methodological approaches – how far can you stretch the criteria of meaning?

The limits of text – do images have a role?

15.00 – 15.15

Tea/Coffee

15.00-17.00


What is peer review and why do we organize scholarly life according to its standards?

Robin Holt

This will be an explication, but also take in critique, and discuss emerging issues, including technological one’s which may change the way peer review works.

Taking the participants through a real example of two papers and how they were handled in review.

The iterations of each paper, the editors’ and reviewers’ comments and the replies from authors will be available
Day Three

9.00 – 11.15


Handling the peer review process continued

Robin Holt (all day)

Participants will be expected to engage with one or other of the two papers dealt with on Day 2, in groups, coming up with their own comments and then comparing them with one another as well as the actual reviews.

The intent here is to reveal the process of peer review from within. The day will end with participants presenting their own thoughts on the papers, and the effect the process of peer review has on what is written and read.

11.15 - 11.30

Tea/Coffee

11.30 – 12.30


Small group work going through participants’ own papers.

This will involve a prior reading assigned the day before and read prior to the final day. Groups will be assigned as far as is possible to reflect mutual interests, aware however that contrast can also be productive.

12.30 – 13.30

Lunch

13.30 – 16.00


In a constructive spirit participants will review one another’s work in small groups of 2-3 and then present to the whole group.

The expectation is that participants will review both with a mind for publication and the broader questions of knowledge production.

Loose pro formas will be provided to help prompt participants in this regard.

16.00 -17.00


Open discussion and learning points.

Learning objectives
By the end of the course participants will have a rich and full sense of how to craft a paper and why crafting such a paper might matter to others, both within and outside the academic community.

We will inquire into the different approaches researchers have used and their styles of writing and imagery.

Emphasis is placed on participants’ scholarly development as well as on their capacity to craft a paper for submission to an academic, peer-reviewed journal.

Exam
N/A

Other
N/A

Start date
27/03/2017

End date
29/03/2017

Level
PhD

ECTS
3

Language
English

Course Literature
Judith Butler (2009) ‘Critique, Dissent, Disciplinarity’. Critical Inquiry 35. 773-797.Michel Foucault (1977/1986) The Concern for Truth in Politics, Philosophy, Culture and Other Writings 1977-1984. New York: Kritzman. 255-268. George Orwell (1948) ’In Front of Your Nose’ in Collected Essays, Vol. IV. London: Penguin. Martin Parker, M (2014) ‘Writing: What can be said, by who, and where?’ In Jeanes, E and Huzzard, T (eds) Critical Management Research: Reflections from the Field. London: Sage, [9 781446257432] 211-226.Robert Chia and Robin Holt (2008) ‘On managerial knowledge’, Management Learning, 39(2): 141-158.John Law, 2004, After Method: Mess in Social Science Research, Routledge, Oxon. Bruno Latour (1988) ’The Politics of Explanation’ in S. Woolgar (ed) Knowledge and Reflexivity. Sage. 155-176.Robert Sutton and Barry Staw (1995) ‘What Theory is Not’, ASQ, 40, 3: 371-384. Virginia Woolf A Room of One’s Own. (Start of Chapter Two) http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200791.txt

Fee
DKK 3,900 (Covers the course, coffee/tea and lunch)

Minimum number of participants
11

Maximum number of participants
14

Location
Copenhagen Business School
Porcelænshaven 18 B
2000 Frederiksberg
Room: S.023

Contact information
The PhD Support
Katja Høeg Tingleff
Tel.: +45 38 15 28 39
E-mail: kht.research@cbs.dk

Registration deadline
13/02/2017

Please note that your registration is binding after the registration deadline.
In case we receive more registrations for the course than we have places, the registrations will be prioritized in the following order: Students from Doctoral School of Organisation and Management Studies (OMS), students from other CBS PhD schools, students from other institutions than CBS.
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