Translating A Dissertation to A Scholarly Publication: Words of Advice from The Journal Editorial Board - JCAPS Vol. 1 Issue 2

A quote often attributed to Michelangelo reads, “In every block of marble I see a statue as plain as though it stood before me, shaped and perfect in attitude and action. I have only to hew away the rough walls that imprison the lovely apparition to reveal it to the other eyes as mine see it” (Shaikh and Leonard-Amodeo, 2005, p. 75). There can be a temptation to see the act of chiseling a journal article out of one’s dissertation in similar terms. One cannot help but wonder if Michelangelo’s advisors ever presented him a piece of stone and said, “Yeah, you could get two or three angels out of this one.” However, “chop it down and submit something” is advice doctoral students often receive when thinking about publishing their dissertations. Such advice can lead to the modern-day equivalent of this approach – cutting and pasting a 20,000-40,000 word dissertation into 5,000- 7,000 word journal article. This process, of course, often leads to expected results: a disjointed and wordy article that is both difficult to follow and overly complicated.