Writing for scholarly publication in an interconnected disjunctured world

Abstract

Academic productivity and scholarly publication are a major requirement for academics in today’s market-oriented academia and a major marker of their position and career prospects in academic stratification. Adopting a global perspective and drawing on fields such as sociology and economy of knowledge, second language writing (SLW), and the fast-expanding field of English for research publication purposes (ERPP), this paper looks at a number of historical, socio-political and economic issues and a network of actors that have shaped and impacted knowledge economy development and exalted scholarly publication in current academic discourse. The paper also looks at and problematizes the analytical lenses through which SLW has examined the scholarly publication practices of scholars globally. Moreover, it proposes other complementary ways to examine scholarly publication practices in international academic contexts which can add a more nuanced understanding to the current scholarship in this domain. Finally, it puts forward a number of suggestions for further inquiry in the domain of scholarly publication that may be of interest to SLW research community.