Over the past five years, Compare has developed a programme to support new writers to the journal, with the purpose of breaking down the barriers that scholars in developing countries often encounter when trying to publish in international journals. Funded by the British Association for International and Comparative Education (BAICE), the programme has run on a yearly basis, consisting of a day’s workshop facilitated by specialists in academic writing and a follow-up mentoring programme. During the workshop, participants work on key features of academic journal articles, look at submitted and revised papers to Compare and have the chance to discuss the expectations and interests of Compare with the editors. Afterwards, each participant is allocated an individual mentor with specialist knowledge in their area of research and/or geographical region, to give follow-up advice and feedback on drafts of their work by e-mail. This year, the workshop will take place in Oxford on September 12th 2011 (immediately before the 11th UKFIET International Conference on Education and Development).
In response to many enquiries from people who wanted to attend the writer’s workshop but were unable to travel to the UK, Compare is launching an on-line version of the workshop on September 12th this year. Registered participants will be able to log in to the on-line workshop and follow similar activities to those in the face-to-face workshop. The on-line version includes DVD and audio materials where editors, former workshop participants and journal reviewers explain more about the journal and the programme. After completing the tasks on-line and receiving feedback from the facilitators, participants will be offered the opportunity to develop their article for Compare through follow-up mentoring by email with a specialist in their area.
The on-line workshop will run for two weeks from September 12th. Seven participants have registered for the online workshop, one each from India, Argentina, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Canada, Uzbekistan and the UK. The online workshop can be found at:
http://www.baice.ac.uk/writingforcompare/
If you are interested in reading more about this initiative, see: Lillis, Magyar and Robinson-Pant (2010) article ‘An international journal’s attempts to address inequalities in academic publishing: developing a writing for publication programme’ (Compare Vol. 10, No. 6, pp 781-800).