Research stories from the teams:  

How to publish within a year: Writing to publish can be fun   by Patricia Steele

Fear was my first reaction to my Academic Review and the need to P-U-B-L-I-S-H.   My first thought was writing an article!  Help!  However, help was available!

After contacting Dr. Mansureh Kebritchi of the Research Hub CEITR for a way to meet my Scholarship requirements, I was placed on a team whose area of interest sounded cutting-edge and interesting.   Diversity Lab team 3 was and is an almost magic combination of interlocking skills where everyone played a critical role in our success.  I joined Liz Johnston, Jerry Olivas, Cassandra Steele, and Liston Bailey as a team member.  

After I committed to serving on a team, a shift in my thinking surprised me.  I moved from proceeding alone, to collaborating; from stressing over what to do, to asking, “What can I do?”  The process was about the people, the experience, the continued support; and, oh, yes... the published article!   

So... if you’re reading this post and asking yourself, “Should I publish,” go ahead and jump in. You will be opening the door to an exciting adventure in learning, with new friends, in the process.  Just do it.

Attitude and communication: Be willing and happy to contribute.

First, you need support and room to create a product of an area of your interest.  Many thanks go to Dr. Kebritchi with CEITR, who was available for support and advice when needed.  She gave us room to be creative.  We had a great team who actually got along.  We were fortunate to have five multi-talented individuals, each, an expert in a particular area needed to produce our article.  From the start, there was freedom for input as to how we could contribute to make this process flow.  

Understanding: It is easier to write if you are excited about the subject.

From the start, we knew our area of interest... virtual reality, but few of us had experienced a 360 immersive VR app.  Then, I was fortunate to have opportunity to experience two VR applications that changed my world!  From that experience, it was easier to understand the potential value of this tool in an educational setting, as well as, realizing additional key words that could be used for the literature searches.

Skills: Everyone has them, and it’s good if you know what yours are.

Amazingly, each team member displayed unique areas of expertise: writers, researcher, methodologist, APA expert, tremendous IT talents.  No one held back but proactively did more each week than expected.  We were amazed at the dovetailing of skills as we proceeded through the process.

Organization: The key to everything. 

During our first meeting, it was agreed as to who would do what, depending on skills and desire to take on specific roles.  Weekly hour-long conferences calls gave us time to get acquainted and discuss our progress in areas of the proposal we had been assigned.  Google DOCS and Google Sheets were valuable in that we could relate to the one document, while viewing each person’s input and questions.  These tools were invaluable during data analysis. 

Determination and Persistence: Remember the tortoise and the hare?

I think these elements are game changes.  Writing an article is a commitment.  Weekly phone calls helped keep us on track.  Oh, there were interruptions, emergencies, life happens, and it was not unusual to have a loyal team member calling from their car phone on the way home from work or from a hotel because of forest fires near home.  In all, Team 3 did an excellent job, resulting in a timely peer-reviewed article, that was submitted, reviewed, published, and presented at an international educational conference within one year.  Presently, the article has been submitted to IGI and accepted as a book chapter.  Team 3 also applied and qualified for a UOP research grant. Only teamwork can achieve success on this level in one year.  An individual would be overwhelmed.

Patience:  As we waited and waited, our team leader would say, “I just believe it will be published!”  And it was.

I am thankful for this opportunity to have worked with each member of Team 3.  I was inspired, challenged, and encouraged to move out into the unchartered waters of writing for publication.  Thanks, everyone. You are the best!