From research production to research reception: Extending the agenda?

 

John M. Swales

 

Professor Emeritus of Linguistics, University of Michigan

 

 

Fri. (Nov. 4) 10:00-12:00

 

Room 116, Wennan Building, Dept. of Foreign Languages & Literatures

 

 

 

The publication of a scholarly work or the completion of a thesis are significant milestones, but they are not the ends of the road. Such texts fall into “a black hole” unless they are read and utilized by others. Further, reception as well as production is of growing institutional importance as citational data is increasingly used for various kinds of assessment. A case can therefore be made for assisting junior scholars with the post-production aspects of their work. In an attempt to trace what makes some articles “successful”, my research assistant and I have examined the citational uptake of articles published in English for Specific Purposes from 1990 to 1999. The results are both surprising and comforting!