Promoting a Culture That Values Writing

Greetings again. Thank you for so warmly welcoming AuthorAID graduate assistant Bernard Appiah.

I’m writing to you from Monterrey, Mexico, where I just finished giving a workshop at Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León (perhaps better known as UANL). As usual, I enjoyed talking with early-career researchers about communicating their work.

During dinner my first evening here, a professor asked an interesting and important question: At a university, how can people help create a culture in which writing about one’s research is valued?

Here, in my view, are a few ways that universities (or parts of universities) can show that they value writing about and publishing research:

• holding workshops or courses to teach graduate students and others about writing and publishing
• making available—and publicizing—library resources useful in writing and publishing (for example, journals, bibliographic databases, and research-writing books)
• giving faculty members enough time to write
• having departmental or other “writing groups” (groups of people who meet periodically—for example, once a month—to discuss progress on their writing, share suggestions, and so forth)
• announcing (for example, in department newsletters or on department websites) the publication of journal articles or books by faculty members, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students
• holding celebrations to honor the authors of recently published such items
• rewarding publication when deciding on salary increases and promotions

Do you have ideas for fostering a university culture that promotes writing and publishing? If so, please share them by posting a comment.