Library:Building Your Academic Profile/Player/CommunityEngagement
Community Engagement
Subject Listservs
Many subjects still depend on subject listservs to circulate important news, ask informal research questions, and even notify users about upcoming webinars, conferences, and job postings. Subject-based listservs can be an extremely invaluable way to engage with researchers in your specific area of research. Ask your graduate advisor or subject liaison librarian if there is an important listserv for your area of research.
- e.g. H-net has many subject listservs for Humanities scholars
Call for Papers
A "Call for Papers" is a method used by publishers to collect articles, conference presentations, and book chapters for potential publication. The call will specify whether you should submit an abstract or a full article/paper/chapter which will then be reviewed for publication. Calls for papers come from a variety of sources, including publisher and association websites, in addition to the resources listed below.
Humanities and Social Sciences Net - Online
- An international consortium of scholars and teachers, H-Net creates and coordinates Internet networks with the common objective of advancing teaching and research in the arts, humanities, and social sciences.
- Search thousands of Calls For Papers in science and technology fields.
- Conference organizers use Twitter to promote their events and to solicit presentations - especially if submission deadlines are extended. For some examples, see #callforpapers.
Professional Associations
If you want to stay current with affairs in your field of study, you may want to join a professional association. Academic associations come together to organize ethics and standards in a field of research and lobby governmental bodies on behalf of their members. Membership often has privileges including job notice services, e-mail listservs, training, conferences, and sometimes even funding and scholarships. It is common practice to list membership in professional associations on your academic CV. Many offer deeply discounted membership rates for graduate students. If you want to find professional associations in your area of study, ask your academic advisor or consult one of the library research guides.
Webinars
The internet has made it easy to participate in scholarly activities in our discipline that formerly required a lot of money and travel. Professional associations and groups now often stream training sessions online to reach more users. Webinars can be free, restricted to members of association, or even cost money. The best way to discover webinars in your area is to join a professional association.
Conferences
Attending and presenting at conferences is important for networking with the larger academic community. For many young scholars, speaking at a conference can be an informal way to get some feedback about your research prior to publication. Make sure to bring a pen to write down ideas that come up after your presentation.
Conferences have proliferated in the last two decades, so it is important to think about attending conferences that will maximize your own investment. Some factors to consider include:
- Will attendance be widespread at the provincial, national or disciplinary level?
- For small conferences, is the subject directly related to my research providing networking with high-profile experts?
- Will the conference proceedings be published? This can be an excellent first publication for a new academic
It is important to know the differences that exist between conference proceedings and journal articles. The most important considerations should be that conferences proceedings are rarely peer-reviewed and that journals rarely want to publish material that's been published elsewhere.