Adult education research: Publication strategies and collegial recognition

Abstract

In recent years, researchers throughout the world have come under increased pressure to publish in English, direct their scholarly work to internationally acclaimed journals indexed in the dominating databases (i.e. Scopus and Web of Science) and render their work citable among peers in other countries. In this chapter, we summarize some recent bibliometric studies that have mapped out what kind of research that have been published and cited in three leading journals related to adult--lifelong education and learning--and which researchers that has been given recognition. We argue that the strong political waves of managerial reform have made academic career trajectories and promotions more dependent upon publications and citations, thus necessitating a discussion about the most effective publication strategies for submission. At the same time, we acknowledge the multiple professional demands of adult educational scholars and highlight the ways different definitions of scholarly impact might stand in conflict with one another.