To ESADE and Back…

By Claire Louise Travers

Doctoral Researcher Hanken

The publishing workshop provided an in-depth review of participant paper to help authors to develop this paper into a journal-level submission. Academics with high levels of experience in editing, reviewing, publishing in the best Organizational Management journals acted as faculty. Professor Chris Voss, from London Business School and Warwick Business School, and the Consulting Editor International Journal of Operations & Production Management (IJOPM) and Associate Editor Journal of Service Research (JSR) supervised my track over the two days. In other tracks, Professor Cipriano Forza, from Università di Padova and Professor Cristina Gimenez from ESADE Business School supervised track two; respectively the Associate Editor Decision Sciences Journal (DSJ), and the Co-Editor-in-Chief IJOPM. The also supervising was Professor Juliana Hsuan, from Copenhagen Business School, an Associate Editor IJOPM and Associate Editor DSJ.

ESADE (Escola Superior d’Administració i Direcció d’Empreses) was a welcoming host, providing a clear and thoughtful approach to the workshop, as well as networking opportunities and a cultural introduction to Catalonia. The Business School campus is in the beautiful Pedralbes neighborhood.

In order to prepare for the workshop, a submissible draft of a working paper was produced, alongside a 15 minute PowerPoint presentation on the paper’s objectives, research questions, method and findings. I presented a preliminary draft of my findings from a series of interviews on the topic of Humanitarian Supply Chain Disruption during COVID-19, conducted prior to my joining doctoral programme at the Hanken School of Economics this year. The workshop offered me the first opportunity to gain close and critical reviews on the paper. This served to be invaluable. The feedback has since guided the development of the more nascent parts of the paper, they also provided strong incentive to get the next draft done as soon as possible. Maybe the best cure for writer’s block is to have seven other academics closely read where you are at and give you genuine and thoughtful feedback.

Each participant also served as a reviewer for two papers in their track, preparing a presentation and written remarks. The review activity demanded of all participants was integral to the experience. The exercise was structured to provide feedback on the introduction and motivation, hypotheses, theoretical background, empirical background, methodology, presentation and discussion of results, contribution to OM research, and general structure and flow. Reading papers from other participants gave me a much need respite from my own stream of study, and let me come back to my own work with fresh eyes. We so clearly see the flaws in other papers, before we see our own.

Finally, this was an opportunity to gain a genuine insight into the requirements of the journals represented. Presentations from Prof. Voss on the submission, review, and revision process allowed participants to gain insight into the way editors approach the contributions before them. These gave me a little peak into the informal ways of working, which previously felt like the black box of peer review. Whilst we are often pushed to produce and submit papers, these presentations suggested we spend at least as much time developing our ability to receive critical feedback and respond clearly and concisely to the comments.

The experience of the publishing workshop was genuinely challenging and fruitful. I would recommend engaging in similar workshops if possible. It is true that you get out what you put in, and as such, I advise future Hanken students to use these opportunities to the fullest by submitting drafts of papers aimed at the journals represented and in a complete form.

[This trip was made possible with the support of the Area of High Potential: Publishing Activities]