Academic Publishing: Issues and Challenges in the Construction of Knowledge by K. L. Hyland (review)

The commonly-used expression, “publish or perish,” has never before carried such weight for scholars in academia. Publication has become a high-stake task for people who work in academia; their reputation, reward, promotion, institutional ranking, etc. are greatly affected by the number and hierarchy of their publications. Junior faculty members are particularly affected, along with English as an Additional Language (EAL) authors, as well as authors from peripheral, non-Anglophone countries who have not yet assimilated into the standard Anglophone academic publishing circle. Academic publishing: Issues and challenges in the construction of knowledge by Ken Hyland (2015) is a timely addition to the ongoing debate about this fierce competition. The book offers many insights into academic publication: what it means to publish in academia, what each process entails, some challenges and concerns, and pedagogical suggestions.

The book is divided into nine chapters. Chapter 1 discusses the essential role which academic publication plays for scholars around the world. Academic publication is not only for constructing and disseminating knowledge, but it is also for assessing the productivity of scholars. For academics, getting their research into print as often as possible is an absolute requirement, so that they can survive in a “numerically-driven assessment culture” (p. 22). Also, publishing their work in English, especially in journals with a high impact factor (IF), has never been more crucial. In this chapter, Hyland provides various measures (biometrics) and sources (citation counting) by which productivity is usually assessed in various disciplines (pp. 11–15). This section is useful for junior faculty members who may not be familiar yet with the procedures used in the assessment of academic publications.

Chapter 2 deals with the issue of global publishing vs. local publishing. There is an undeniable pressure on scholars to publish in international journals. However, Hyland distinguishes between “local knowledge” and “global knowledge.” Local knowledge emerges from the history and culture of a specific location, and therefore might be best suited to local publication. In contrast, global knowledge is context-independent, and might be best suited to global publication. Scholars need to consider this distinction when they explore appropriate outlets to disseminate specific types of knowledge.

The dominance of English as a vehicle for academic publication is discussed in Chapter 3. The English language has become dominant in scientific publication since the Second World War. In fact, academic publication in English accounts for about 90% of all publications in the key indexing databases (p. 49). Due to this inequality in publication language, there is a perceived bias against EAL authors in favor of native-English authors. However, Hyland introduces several studies that show that there is no hard evidence to support this perceived bias (Belcher, 2007; Flowerdew, 2001; Gosden, 1992; Hewings, 2002). These studies suggest that many native and non-native English authors have similar shortcomings, and that language fluency does not play a decisive role in the acceptance or rejection of their work. Instead, a lack of resources and of research writing expertise seems to play a much more crucial role.

Chapter 4 deals with authorship. First, disciplinary literacies and their importance are discussed. Each discipline has its own “textualizing,” in which particular rhetorical practices are manifested. In order to successfully publish in academia, disciplinary literacies need to be analyzed and mastered. Second, a worldwide trend of international collaborative research, especially interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary collaboration, has become more popular than ever. “In 1988, for instance, only 8 percent of articles from the major science and technology regions had international co-authors, but this had risen to 23 percent by 2009, and now ranges from 27–42 per cent” (p. 76).

In Chapter 5, Hyland discusses academic publishing as a “situated” activity. By this he means that authors and readers (gatekeepers included) form particular communities, and that, as in all communities, there are insiders and outsiders. In order for outsiders (referred to in the book as “newcomers”) to join a...