Academic Publication Workshop Set Up to Increase the Centre´s Research Output and Visibility

The DAAD Lecturer Iris Vernekohl from the Development Research Division of the Centre is offering an “Academic Writing and Publication Workshop”.

The publication workshop series is open to Master and PhD students from both division of the Centre, is limited to 20 participants, and takes place Tuesdays, 10.00-13.00, from 6 September to 25October.

The global share of visible research output of the African academic community, as measured by the quantity of articles written and published by African-based researchers in regional and international accredited journals, is continuously lamented to be far too low, which, very recently,led the former post-doctoral Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart and recent DVC Academic from Stellenbosch University in South Africa, Prof. Arnold van Zyl, to conclude in the Mail & Guardian (Sept 9 to 15 2011, pp. 36-37) that “The (African) continent´s research needs the right amount of exposure to matter on the world stage”.

With this in mind, Iris Vernekohl designed the Workshop that explicitly intends to optimally prepare and support the Centre´s DAAD scholarship holders to succeed not only in writing publishable research articles but, specifically so, in getting published both in national, regional but also in international refereed and accredited journals in the field of development and public policy management alike.

This is why the participants of the workshop do not only get acquainted with strategies to improve and polish their journal article writing skills but why they also gain in-depth insights into the peculiarities of the working mechanisms of the international academic journal publication market in addition to developing strategies and skills to possibly collaborate with other researchers/authors, select an appropriate journal, and to successfully manage the many hurdles involved in the submission and referee process.

Iris therefore hopes that “the workshop will add its share to contribute significantly to motivating and enabling an increased output and visibility of the research activities of our African scholarship holders, allowing them to contribute personally and more effectively to the academic but also political, social, and economic development of their home countries”.

For more information on the workshop, please contact Iris Vernekohl directly: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.