Portland State University, August 10-12, 2000 

Over three intense days in early August, 2000, thirteen rising scholars of urban planning participated in a workshop on “Writing for Scholarly Publication.” Utilizing the facilities of Portland State’s School of Urban Studies and Planning and supported by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning and the Journal of the American Planning Association, the sessions combined overview of the publication process with detailed workshopping of individual papers.

The fortunate proximity of the editorial offices of the Journal of Planning Education and Research at the University of Oregon and the Journal of the American Planning Association at Portland State University allowed participation by all five editors (Mike Hibbard and Ed Weeks of JPER; Deborah Howe, Carl Abbott, and Sy Adler of JAPA), as well as JAPA staff Pete Link and Hilary Russell.

Participants were competitively selected on the basis of paper abstracts and submitted a completed article manuscript a month in advance of the workshop. We then tried to model the actual publication process. Each manuscript received a formal referee report by one of the five editors, by a volunteer from one of the two editorial boards, and by one of the other participants. The reports served as the basis for concentrated discussion in small groups (three participants and an editor). The authors prepared a detailed responses that a outlined  the steps they would take in reworking their manuscript.

General sessions dealt with the characteristics of a publishable article, with the organization and responsibilities of the referee process, and with the process and goals of copyediting. Mary Braun, acquisitions editor for the Oregon State University Press, described and demystified the steps in turning a dissertation into a potential book.

Participants came from across the United States. The following list includes the university granting their Ph.D. or their university of employment (several were starting jobs within weeks of the workshop!): Enid Arvidson (Texas-Arlington), Victoria Beard (Wisconsin-Madison), Mallika Bose (Ball State), Kelly Clifton (Iowa), Matthew Dalbey (Jackson State), Natalie Davila (Roosevelt University), Jennifer Evans-Cowley (Texas A&M), Karen Gibson (Portland State), Aseem Inam (Michigan), Kevin Krizek (University of Washington), Teresa Vasquez (Texas-Arlington),  Stephen Wheeler (California-Berkeley), and Matt Witt (Portland State).