AAACE 2021 Annual Conference

editing, academic writing, professional development

In this session, we will describe our experiences with co-editing an academic book. We will discuss the major steps in the co-editing process, from idea conceptualization and proposal submission, all the way to publication. We will reflect on this as a professional development experience and conclude by highlighting major takeaways.

This session focuses on one of the three major goals of an academic position – scholarly publications. Specifically, the aim of this presentation is to describe, through personal reflections, the details pertaining to the process of co-editing an academic book. Considering the importance placed on publishing and actively seeking publication opportunities as part of academic professional development, it is imperative to shed light on the publication process and alleviate some of the initial concern individuals may have regarding the process. In their editorials, journal editors often present best practices based on their editing experiences which should serve as guidelines for authors seeking to publish in their respective journals; however, for novice book editors, there is little support in the literature which outlines the process or sets specific guidelines. The importance of this presentation comes from the aim to bring to light the editing process by outlining the specific timeline we followed and the steps we took (how we recruited authors, how we prepared to the manuscript for submission to the publisher, etc.). Considering that the book that we edited is global in nature and includes contributions by authors from almost 20 countries, we will also discuss the intercultural communication component.