How to Publish and Develop a Research Agenda in Academic Criminal Justice

Abstract

I focus on answering practical “how to” questions on scholarly publishing for aspiring and newly hired faculty members in criminal justice and criminology in this article. I begin by establishing the importance of developing a research agenda and publications that flow from it in a faculty member’s distribution of effort. After describing several possible forms that publications take, I discuss the process of taking an idea for a paper from conception to potential acceptance, emphasizing the need for understanding and targeting appropriate outlets for it. I suggest that developing a research agenda may be accomplished by focusing intensively on a particular topic or by studying a variety of intellectual issues in the field. The importance of reflecting on and contributing to debates within the profession is also mentioned.

Acknowledgements

I thank three anonymous JCJE reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions on an earlier draft of this paper.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

¹ In your scholarly career, however great the temptation, please avoid any association with pay-to-publish or predatory publishers, their shady journals, and skanky practices. It will cost you (literally and figuratively) if you become involved in that nether-world of manipulative and underhanded dealings. For more information on this important topic, see the work and website of Jeffrey Beall (2015) of the University of Colorado-Denver.

² I am not providing any further self-citations, but you are welcome to contact me for further information on these publications or to utilize your favorite academic search engine to find them.