Perrow, C. 1985 Journaling Careers. in L. L. Cummings and P. J. Frost,
Publishing in the Organizational Sciences p. 96-107 Richard Irwin 220-230.
Propositons from Perrow:
1. It's a must to publish in mainline journals
2. The choice of department sets 35% of the success (high standards, tough
critics, good graduate students)
If the dept isn't strong use the mail to compensate. Use graduate students
to your advantage
3. After you have some repution, try to enlarge it in unrefereed outlets
(which require less revision time)
4. Talent will win out.
5. Luck is important. A prestiguous university improves access to ideas
and research sites. Synergy with the faculty's interests. Interest that
concides with government's. Riding apopular wave. Sponsored by a prestigious
member.
Perrow was lucky and had a good mix of faculty and grad students at Berkeley.
He started writing critique in an unrefereed source and then wisely switched
to mainlining. It was a long process, but getting into mainline journals
brings invitations for chapters in edited volumes and to attend conferences.
In conferences and collections you can experiment and take risks. Lower
hurdles provide practice.
He also sent some work to Jim March, who invited him review some hospital
literature (luck).
He moved on to Pittsburgh, where the more leisurely pace continued to defeat
him. He didn't put the rigot into work (until movitated by reviewers or
NSF grant reviewers).
Eventually he would take his non-refereed stuff and rework it to fit mainline
rigor, improving his theories in the process.
Perrow thinks that creative work most often appears outside of the mainline
journals. They are filling up with the work of graduate studnes and new
PhD's ( is this really true?).
He also comments on the ASQ Asphalt -- mainline journals that remove any
personal style in the writing to make the piece fit "normal science".
But he cocedes that "evena measure of standardization, formalization,
and specialization in format and subject matter is vital for the mainstream
of a discipline, and without the mainstream, there can be no tributaries".
p. 229
Do 2-3 years of mainlining, 2-3 in unrefereed places, and then back to mainline
journals.