Penning an Academic Journal – The easy and the difficult bits

The world of research involves quite a few aspects and amongst them there’s the consideration of academic journals as well. Actually researchers and students are known to publish their works and experimental findings in academic journals. In fact, there are so many research designs from which the academic researchers can choose. These come in various forms and cater to various subjects and domains. Say for example if it’s an academic journal focused on literature, then analytical essays are going to be the dominating factor. On the other hand, if it’s a scientific journal, then it’s expected you’ll find more of empirically based studies including sound methodologies.

The advantages of academic journals

Academic journals have multiple factors associated with it but at the same time there are certain advantages and disadvantages involved as well. Check out the following advantages of academic journals.

–More options for researching: Academic journals mostly come with more than one option for researching. This actually widens the scope for exploring your chosen subject. In general, the two kinds of research commonly used include quantitative and qualitative researches. As for quantitative research, then it’s known to focus only on the measurement and conversion bit. It deals with a lot of information and statistical data. As for qualitative research, then it’s mostly to do with opinions, impressions and verbal data of sorts. You can make use of both or any one when it comes to your academic journal.
–Provision of case studies or in-depth knowledge: Academic journals also prove to be a great mode to gain in-depth knowledge. This is essential because of the fact that case studies are available for you to base your research on when it comes to an academic journal. As a researcher you can very well make use of the case studies to form a hypothesis. Be it specific people or any particular situation, an in-depth analysis can be reached with its aid.
–There’s the scope for fluent writing: An academic journal also gives you the scope to exercise fluent writing. After all as a student you’ve got your own thoughts and ideas to express and that can only find fruition when you’re given the scope to write at length. Journal writing is known to create a particular zone or niche that’s judgment free. You can practically shut off your internal editor here and write error free. Good writing can never rear its head without the scope for fluency and that’s exactly what academic journals pave the ground for.
–Promotes active reading thus reinforcing knowledge: Journal writing proves to be all the more advantageous simply because of the fact that it promotes active reading. This active reading obviously stems from the need to write enriching facts. In fact, current educational research shows journal writing provides an impetus for deeper thinking. Reading and writing put together serves as the right concoction for promoting active and constructive thinking.
–Aids reflective learning while calling for attention: There are instances and projects wherein you might be required to pen down reflections so that you can share or put forth your learning experience through this project. Having said so, such personalized learning experiences call for individualized attention as well. This plays a rather important role considering the fact that this is the age of heterogeneously grouped classrooms where it’s a challenge for the teachers to constantly meet out individual attention.

The disadvantages of academic journals

Now that you’re aware of the advantages that come with academic journals, it’s important to acquaint yourself with the disadvantages as well. Getting to know both sides of the coin is important when it comes to success.
–The researching options come with limitations: It’s true that there are options available when it comes to researching. However, the disadvantage lies in the fact that if you choose to go for any one option, then there are quite a few limitations involved with each. It’s more like one particular option being deficient in certain factors and the other having deficiency in others.
–Need to depend on outside sources for research: There’s this constant need to depend on outside sources when it comes to researching for an academic journal. For instance, as a researcher you might want to understand the effects of a particular phenomenon. However, in most cases there’s a bunch of limitations associated with the kind of experiments that can be conducted. Now academic journals need solid facts and figures and hence, a hypothetical analysis wouldn’t really carry you through.
–Not having full control over your research: This is another major disadvantage which can prove rather frustrating as well. When you don’t have full control over the research you’re conducting, then it can make things rather frustrating. For instance, you’ve undertaken a case study and there are people reporting to you under it. Now, there might be quite a few amongst them who might not have an accurate memory. This is something which is completely beyond your control and there’s not much you can do to help it.
–Naturalistic observations pose problems: Another fact you’re likely to encounter as a researcher is that the naturalistic observations haven’t got much reliability associated with it. Moreover, in case of naturalistic studies you might not always be able to reach the cause and effect relationship involved. Plus, in case of experiments, there are high chances that the behavior of the test subject might fluctuate between the laboratory and natural environment.
–Not effective enough for conducting surveys: There are high chances that when writing for an academic journal you might be required to conduct various surveys and tests. Herein also the crops up problem of designers failing to come up with an effectively designed survey. Moreover, it’s quite likely that the selected sample might not really represent whole of the concerned population and this kind of a false representation might just lead to false information.

The above disadvantages should now provide a pointer to the kind of problems you’re likely to face when undertaking an academic journal. Now, it’s a combination of both advantages as well as disadvantages, so it’s on you to tackle them simultaneously.

Penned down by Savion Sage: specializes in various domains and is associated with a major Law firm.