Analysis and news
are still experienced, these are less intense and become replaced by feelings of being ‘constantly interrupted’ and ‘having no time’. At this stage, academics know what they want to write – they just don’t have the space to do it and this causes stress. Also, people at mid-career stage start
to experience demands from outside the workplace. ‘Family responsibilities’ feature highly as a barrier to writing and publishing, suggesting that publishers and institutions might wish to consider a more holistic response to researcher development and work-life balance policies. Mid-career academics rarely need technical writing support, but they do need the space, time- management and prioritisation techniques to help them achieve a better balance between writing, their day job and their life.
Late-career academics want to leave a legacy and want more freedom to write books
The majority of writing pressures and barriers drop away from academics at the later stages of a career – but many still have needs that institutions and publishers would benefit from being attuned to. Between 16 and 25 years’ academic writing experience, authors ease-off writing and publishing content that they don’t personally gain from.
While mid-career is dominated by writing things linked to career progression like journal articles, conference papers and grant-reports, late-career scholars decrease their focus on producing this content. The focus turns to writing books, monographs, book chapters and creative fiction – all forms of writing linked to high levels of satisfaction. We also find that
“Academics in the middle stages of their careers feel the most burdened by the pressures of academic life”
at late career, academics place a higher emphasis on writing blogs, trade journalism, op-ed style pieces. Which suggests legacy and thought leadership is becoming increasingly important. Understanding the motivations of
highly-cited scholars and giving them more freedom to write long-form, while at the same time, leveraging their wish to leave a legacy, might better equip publishers to attract their talents. Perhaps publishers can
sell them on the enjoyment, professional freedom and profile they will gain through working with them? Once an author is part of your stable, how could you leverage their desire to be considered a ‘thought leader’?
Understand the ‘why’ of writing Our findings should matter to universities, libraries and publishers because, by understanding how and why academics’ motivations and barriers change throughout a career, they can be targeted, incentivised and supported more effectively – and this can bring benefits all round. Now we know ECRs struggle most acutely with psychological barriers to writing, author services can be adapted and widened to prevent early career burn out. By understanding that mid-career scholars feel under intense pressures from workplace overload and family responsibilities, support services can be broadened to be more holistic in nature. And by appreciating that late career scholars have changed motivations, publishers and institutions can be smarter about how they attract and retain the top talent.
Chris Smith is co-founder of Prolifiko
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