The Early Career Researcher Podcast

Episode 38: Edited Volumes (how to edit, write, and publish them)

In our latest episode, Charlie and Rosie are joined by our friend and colleague Alex, and we revisit the thorny topic of edited volumes. Designed as collections of essays which all explore a particular theme or topic from differing perspectives and by multiple different writers, edited volumes can make s useful way to contribute to scholarship. Rosie, Alex and Charlie bring their own mix of academic and publishing expertise, to discuss 1) what edited volumes are, and what role they play in academia, 2) how to work on organising and actually editing the volume (as project lead/as an editor) and 3) how to write a chapter for such a volume (how to get asked, how to frame your work, etc.) You can hear more about this in our earlier episode 17 in our back catalogue (October 2024) where Rosie and Charlie chatted to Stephanie Brown about similar themes.

Episode 37: Leadership Roles

In this episode, Charlie and Rosie are joined by our friend and colelague Kate, to dicuss the various types of leadership roles that can be part of an academic career. As a current Head of Department (and YES, she is also a medievalist scholar) Kate helps us to walk through 1) types of leadership roles that are available in UK and US academia, 2) the ways in which an Early Career Researcher can gain experiences of leadership (no matter how small!) before 3) Kate gives some reflections on her own experinces of leadership in UK Higher Education. Please feel free to leave us your feedback via the comments, by getting in touch via social media (@ECRPodcasters) or by emailing ecrpodcasters@gmail.com

Episode 36: Visiting Fellowships

Welcome back to the pod! After a bit of a break, Charlie and Rosie are back with our new guest Ben, to talk about Visiting Fellowships. Together, we discuss: 1) what Visiting Fellowships are (spoiler: a period of time spent away from your home institution, travelling to a special place to conduct research with materials that you cannot access at home), 2) how the application process works, 3) what makes a good/bad application, and 4) how to make the most of a Fellowship if you're lucky enough to gain one. Along the way, we reflect on our own experiences of some of the most enjoyable times of our research careers. If you enjoyed this episode then do try some of our others, give us a follow on your podcast platform, and follow us on social media (@ECRPodcasters). Thank you for listening!

Episode 35 How to Index Your Book

Charlie and Rosie return in our latet episode, where we are joined by our mutual friend, Rob, to talk about a not very exciting but very important job: making an index for your book. Anyone who has written their own book or anyone who has produced an edited volume, will be familiar with the dreaded INDEX. These days, authors and editors are usually responsible for producing their own index. This may sound like a simple task, but you may be surprised at how tricky and time consuming it can actually be. As academics, we aren’t always aware of what an index is actually for and what role it plays in the publishing process. So we thought we would ask Rosie (our resident publishing expert), some questions, including: - What is an index FOR? - How does the process of making an index work? (What do publishers ask for, and do they give any help?) - What makes a good and a bad index for a publisher? - How have we, as academics, found the process of prudicing our index? Please do 'like', and follow/subscribe to the podcast, and feel free to offer your feedback and comments (reviews increase our visibility, so please do leave us your thoughts). You can follow us on BlueSky @ecrpodcasters

Episode 34: Copyediting in Academia (and how to get into it)

In this episode, Charlie an Rosie are joined by our new guest Jo, who had a successful academic career before starting her own business as a freelance copyeditor. Anybody who wants to publish academic research will probably at some point find themselves working with a copyeditor. The copyeditor has traditionally been an essential toolkit in academic publishing – they are the person who takes your text and polishes it up, gets rid of embarrassing typos, and makes sure your document makes sense. In this episode, we dive a bit more deeply into this role, and talk about what copyediting really involves, and the value it brings. But we also wanted to talk about copyediting as a career, in case this is something that you might be thinking about. We also talk about the state of the field, and if AI can ever really replace the human touch... Links discussed in the episode: - Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP): https://www.ciep.uk - Chartered Institude of Linguistics (Translation): https://www.ciol.org.uk - Trio Mandilli: https://www.instagram.com/trio_mandili?igsh=MW1iejU1MTJydXp6Ng==