The Dyke V ol. 3.1 4 ACADEMIC PUBLISHING DEMYSTIFIED By Alois.S. Chi romo 1 Department of Appli ed Educati on Midlands St ate University Zimbabwe Abstract T hi s paper a cknowl edges t hat writi ng and publis h ing is or s houl d be an i n t egr al part of t he lif e o f any acade mi c. T he ai m of t his paper is , t her ef ore , t o assist j uni or ac ademi cs t o ge t t he ir manus cri pts pub lis hed i n r ef er eed j our nals . T h e paper att empts t o demy stif y ac ademic publis h ing by ex pl a i ni ng t he re sponsi b iliti es of t he e dit or , t h e peer r evi ew pr ocess and t he decisi ons made by t he ed it or on t he manus cri pt . Wh il e t he i deas pr off er ed i n t his paper mai nl y r el at e t o T he DYKE: A j our nal of the Mi dl ands S t at e Un i versit y , t hey can als o appl y t o most j ournals. Introduct ion. Publi shi ng in a refereed journal is or shoul d be an i nt egral part of any academi c. A refereed journal is a scholarly publication in whi ch experts in a given academic discipline review articles before they are accepted for publicati on. Journals are the principal fora f or f or mal communi cati on t hrough whi ch research and devel opment i n t he fi el d is made public and through which it is evaluat ed and authenticated by experts before and after publication (Viglietta, 1996). Academics should be guided by the academic adage “publish or per ish!’’ that places a strong emphasis on published work. There are three ma in reasons why academi cs shoul d writ e and publish. Fi r st , it is a requirement in most institutions of higher l earni ng t hat academi cs should contribute to the knowledge base of their disciplines t hrough research and publications. Second, for academi cs t o be pr omot ed to hi gher ranks such as t hat of seni or l ect urer, associ at e professor or profe ssor they should have demonst rat ed beyond any reasonabl e doubt that they have made a contribution to the knowl edge base of their academic disciplines t hr ough re search and publi cati ons. Thi r d, Ogunni yi ( 1998, a) asser ts t hat academi c writing is used as a baromet er for measuri ng academi c and professi onal competence. Indeed, research is the cornerstone of academic excell ence. Academics should therefore, show t hei r academi c prowess and achi eve i nt ernati onal recogniti on by wr iti ng and publishing paper s. However , some juni or academi cs have a phobi a for writi ng and publishi ng. One of t he reasons for this phobi a emanat es fr om t he obser vati on t hat academic writing has been so mystified t o t he ext ent t hat some people think that it is a preserve of a few senior academics. Lack of persist ence in the face of repeated failures to publish may also l ead to this phobia (Remenyi & Money, 1996; Ogunni yi, 1998,b). I t is t herefore against this background t hat t his arti cl e seeks t o demysti fy academi c 1 Alois S. Chiromo is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Applied Education, Midlands State University , P. Bag 9055, Gweru, Zimbabwe. Email:chiromoa@msu.ac.zw 1