It has been almost two years since I wrote a Hive post on some fancy academic topic that few would even consider vaguely interesting. Like usual, I ran with a crazy idea I had just before family members for a family dinner arrived. I made the post somewhere in 2022, but soon after pressing the Post/Publish button, I saw what they call a "CFA/CFP" or a call for abstracts/call for papers. The topic for the special edition of this particular journal was right in the middle of what my Hive Post was about. So, an afternoon or two after I wrote the Hive Post, I sat down and took the basic and principle idea that emerged from my Hive Post and I turned it into an academic article.
Writing an academic journal is a weird process. For many years, I always thought that I would never publish something. The idea of publishing academic work awakens a strange fear in me. I would consider myself more of a "let's discuss strange philosophy topics while half intoxicated at a bar" type of philosopher rather than a characteristic one as portrayed in various movies.
But this morning, I received the e-mail that my article had been published after the two-year process of finalising the special edition for this particular journal. This article, my second in 2024, is particularly dear and special to me because, as noted in the first paragraph, the essential idea behind the whole article came from a Hive Post I made. The literal inspiration for the work is buried in one of my posts.
I still remember the day when I posted it. It was a family dinner, a typical Sunday. I got the idea while writing, as I do with so many of my Hive posts. I do not dictate my mind or my fingers, I merely let them flow. Somehow, I managed to write something interesting, something that pricked my own curiosity. But it remained a Hive post, because where would I use it otherwise?
But then, I received the call for papers, and I began writing, I expanded on the idea that started as a little mustard seed in the Hive post. I added a lot of academic jargon, something I gained after spending almost ten years in academia, I added some references, also something I managed to pick up after all those many years, and I produced a document that somehow resembled a journal article.
Spending way too much time on editing the document, I pressed "SEND" and I sent the article into the web slash void. I couple of weeks after submitting, I got the notification: We like the idea of your article and intend to send it to the peer review stage. Or something along those lines.
I then waited another couple of weeks, checking my e-mails way too much, until I received the email... The peer reviewers love the article; except for minor changes, their general suggestion to the editor is "Publish after minor changes" or something along those lines.
After many edits, changes, imposter syndrome doubts, existential crises, I am now here, with the article published and thrown into the academic space. It might be debated by scholars, it might not be read, but the fact remains, it is out there in the void of academia!
Publishing in academic journals is an interesting experience. There are so many moments in which you question what you are doing, why you are doing it, and all of those little doubts that you turn into mountains.
Standing in front of your peers discussing your work is not easy, the spotlight is on you and you need to convince people, philosophers, who are not easily convinced, that your work holds value. Similarly in publishing, you need to convince others that you have something valuable to say. And this is not easy, neither is it a quick process.
But here I am, having survived the peer-review system (twice now), still standing and still not trusting my own writing. The doubts, the imposter syndrome, it is not fading, not yet at least.
The peer-review system basically says: Your peers have seen and assessed your work and deem it worthy, valuable, and good enough. Yet I am still wondering, doubting, thinking, are my ideas even good enough?
Maybe with the next one things will be better.
For now, happy writing, happy studying, and stay safe.
All of the writings in the post are my own, albeit inspired by many years of musings. The photographs are also my own, taken with my Nikon D300.