Scholarly Communication

What would it be like if scholars presented their research in sound rather than in print? Better yet, what if we could hear them in the act of their research and analysis, pulling different historical sounds from the archives and rubbing them against one another in an audio editor?In today’s episode, we get to find out what such an innovative scholarly audiobook would sound like–because our guest has created the first one! Jacob Smith‘s ESC (University of Michigan Press) is a fascinating sonic exploration of postwar radio drama and contemporary sound art, as well as a meditation on how humans have reshaped the ecological fate of the planet. Before we listen to an excerpt of ESC, Mack interviews Jake about how his skills as a former musician came in handy for his work as an audio academic.You can listen to ESC: Sonic Adventure in the Anthropocene in its entirety for free courtesy of the University of Michigan Press.You can also watch Jake’s 90s band The Mysteries of Life perform in the “bad music video” Jake mentions or on Conan O’Brien.Jacob Smith is founder and director of the Master of Arts in Sound Arts and Industries, and professor in the Department of Radio/Television/Film at Northwestern University. He is the author of three print-based books on sound: Vocal Tracks: Performance and Sound Media (University of California Press 2008); Spoken Word: Postwar American Phonograph Cultures(University of California Press 2011); and Eco-Sonic Media (University of California Press, 2015). He writes and teaches about the cultural history of media, with a focus on sound and performance.Today’s show was edited by Craig Eley and featured music by Blue Dot Sessions. Our intern is Gina Moravec. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen to this interview of Istvan David, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, Department of Computing and Software, Faculty of Engineering, McMaster University, Canada; and, Houari Sahraoui, Full Professor, Department of Computer Science and Operations Research, University of Montreal, Canada. We talk about their coauthored paper "Digital Twins for Cyber-Biophysical Systems: Challenges and Lessons Learned" (MODELS 2023).Istvan David : "Making Figure 1, and also all of the text that depends on it——this was one of the hardest parts about writing this paper. I remember, in the very first draft, we had another layer there of abstraction, but we saw that the content was really hard to follow that way. So, for me personally, my takeaway from that process was: Though it made sense to us back then to follow our case-based generalization approach, this just wasn't going to work for a reader who hadn't gone down that exact same research path as us. So, really, you have to mindful of your reader like that."​ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen to this interview of Görkem Giray, IT executive and part-time educator in the domain of computer science. We talk about his paper A software engineering perspective on engineering machine learning systems: "A software engineering perspective on engineering machine learning systems: State of the art and challenges" (JSS 2021).Görkem Giray : "By the time I received back the reviews for this paper, I had been working on the topic for over a year. So, that's why, like so many researchers deep inside their topics, I had started to become blind. Therefore, it helps immensely to have outside reviewers on your work——because with focus on a topic comes, too, this blindness in perspective. That's where the outsider view helps." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen to this interview of Redowan Mahmud, Lecturer in the School of Electrical Engineering, Computing and Mathematical Sciences, Curtin University, Australia; and, Mohammad Goudarzi, Lecturer at Faculty of Information Technology, Monash University, Australia. We talk about their paper iFogSim simulator for mobility, clustering, and microservice management in edge and fog computing environments (JSS 2022).Redowan Mahmud : "The thing is, when a researcher starts writing, they start from their own perspective. So, in our case, we wrote our manuscript from the perspective of, 'These things are right, and those things are the limitations.' But in the review process, we found out — as many researchers do — that the strengths and limitations of our work were not demonstrably in quite that shape. The reviewers still needed convincing that what we were doing was innovative and in the long run was going to make some impact. That was the task we needed to accomplish through the writing." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen to this interview of Darja Smite, Professor of Software Engineering at Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden, and also research scientist at SINTEF; and, Jarle Hildrum, Director, Deloitte Consulting, Norway; and also, Daniel Mendez, Professor of Software Engineering at Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden, and as well, Senior Scientist heading the research division Requirements Engineering at fortiss. We talk about their paper Work-from-home is here to stay: Call for flexibility in post-pandemic work policies (JSS 2023).Daniel Mendez : "Two key takeaways from our collective experience here are, No.1, figures don't need to be absolute — so, we should really focus on the essence of what we want to convey. And No.2, in terms of what we want to convey, I think that every figure ideally has one key message, one key takeaway." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the fourth episode of Publish My Book, Avi breaks down the core components of a winning book proposal and identifies key questions you should be able to answer to effectively convey to your publisher why they should consider your manuscript. Avi shares why it is worth your time to introduce yourself to your target acquisitions editor in advance. He then takes a deep dive into the book proposal itself by addressing how you can craft each proposal section as strongly as possible. From the table of contents and proposal abstract to identifying which sample chapter to share and how to compile a succinct CV, Avi offers insider tips to help you set yourself up for success from the outset.Related resources: How to Get a Contract from a Reputable Academic Publisher Before You Write Your Book Sample Book Proposal Watch Laura Portwood Stacer, author of The Book Proposal Book, in conversation with Avi Staiman about mastering the book proposal Hear from acquisitions editors: The Authors Handbook to Academic Book Publishing Identify your current stage within the publishing journey (and navigate the rest of the journey with success!) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the third episode of Publish My Book, Avi dives into one of the most important stages of the publishing journey: writing the book proposal. Avi poses a fundamental first step you should take before putting pen to paper - conducting a thorough market analysis of your research. By identifying key criteria in your market analysis, you will be equipped to more effectively present your target acquisitions editor with a convincing proposal that not only highlights your research’s impact but also why it can sell and how it can contribute to their existing portfolio.Related resources: How to Get a Contract from a Reputable Academic Publisher Before You Write Your Book Hear from acquisitions editors: The Authors Handbook to Academic Book Publishing Identify your current stage within the publishing journey (and navigate the rest of the journey with success!) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the second episode of Publish My Book, Avi Staiman explores how to determine if your research is best suited for a commercial or university press and why the distinction between the two categories is key to increasing your chances of publication success. Avi shares some important differences between these two publishing types by posing a series of critical questions aspiring authors should be able to answer about their research and publishing aspirations, including: Do I want to see my published book at an airport? By gaining an understanding of important terminology, including ‘trade publishing’, authors can continue to lay down a sturdy foundation for their publishing journey.Related resources: Which publishing option is best for me? Learn more about leading commercial and university presses Hear from acquisitions editors: The Authors Handbook to Academic Book Publishing Identify your current stage within the publishing journey (and navigate the rest of the journey with success!) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the first episode of Publish My Book, Avi Staiman offers strategic tips for identifying your target publisher, including: understanding where other titles in your research field have been published and how your research angle fits into existing series, using platforms such as the Association of University Presses and New Books Network to your advantage and introducing yourself to relevant editors to inquire about potential publishing fits.Related resources:Association of University Presses find a publisher matrixIdentify which New Books Network channel(s) most closely relates to your research fieldHear from acquisitions editors: The Authors Handbook to Academic Book PublishingIdentify your current stage within the publishing journey (and navigate the rest of the journey with success!) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen to this interview of Roberto Verdecchia, Assistant Professor at the Software Technologies Laboratory, University of Florence, Italy. We talk about his coauthored paper Building and evaluating a theory of architectural technical debt in software-intensive systems (JSS 2021).Roberto Verdecchia : "In results sections, I feel it's rather helpful if, when writing, you sort of find a systematicity in the presentation. So, if you look at our paper here, each subsection has the exact same structure, where we start by describing a category first in general — you know, giving an overview of the category — then we cross-reference to a figure, where the description becomes more fine-grained and the overview more low-level for that particular subsection, then finally we include each one of all the single categories, each with its own subheading in boldface." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices