Societal structures have always tried to control what knowledge the collective population is allowed to have and how far that knowledge can spread. To this extent, eras are frequently characterized by some form of book control, starting all the way back in 386 A.D. when anyone found with a religious text other than that of Christian content would pay with their lives. Pagan books and anything that covered mythical tradition were burned, and this action repeated itself in the course of successive history every time a major paradigm shift was enacted.

Today, it’s harder to get away with eliminating entire categories of dogma out of a population, but it’s done in smaller doses in things like edited collections. When an entire book is considered to be of value, minus a few small, unaccepted challenges to societal structure, those books are re-released with edits that detract from the original intent but still give an overall knowledge base of the author’s findings or theme.

What are Edited Works in the Field of Research?

Edited works in science are collections of multiple researchers’ findings, chosen for the relevance of the topic rather than the content itself. These works are original, not republished, but they are also guided towards a specific outcome or published in edited collections because of the scholar’s inability to receive recognition from a “reputable” journal in their scope of practice.

These are still used in academic discourse because they provide a valuable source of information, but many scholars look down on edited works as watered-down pieces of knowledge instead of the full potential that they could have been.

The Disparagement of Edited Collections

Edited scientific collections are disparaged, not always because of the watering down of the content itself, but because of the inability for an author to choose what’s published alongside their own work.

Although these are often disparaged by scholars, many writers choose to submit work in edited collections anyway. The data shows that it may even be beneficial to use edited collections in academic discourse.

Scholarly impact from edited collections can increase since these sources are more accessible to readers. Statistics show that citations from chapters found in edited publications create one-quarter of citation indicators. Papers published in edited volumes have longer digital lifespans, most likely because of the relevance of multiple topics and authors combined in one format. Instead of the typical two year period before an article is archived, edited collections can span ten years.

However, this is also a negative result, since data that is ten years old is likely to be obsolete or irrelevant anymore. Academic experts know this, and it leads to further disparagement of the idea of edited collections in general.

Choosing to See Edited Collections as Valuable

Overall, the intent of edited collections was to give researchers the opportunity to publish work that was not considered valuable enough for a scholarly journal or did not have the strength to stand alone itself. These editions were to be less visible than their reputable counterparts, limit audience accessibility, and control the knowledge of who read them.

Publishing in an edited collection could, therefore, have a detrimental effect for the scholar when it came time to apply for a position, tenure, or funding.

But instead, many writers today are looking at edited collections in a new light. These compilations could be the means to bring together a diverse group of researchers who are all aiming towards a similar cause, encouraging them to work together, collaborate, and engage in mutually advantageous research to promote the cause of pursuance of research to enhance the betterment of society.

With this new outlook on the benefits of edited collections, many institutions today are guiding students towards using these works in their academic discourse rather than disparaging them as once was the tradition of scientific opinions on subjectivity and qualitativeness using old versions of acceptability as their basis for judgment.

Compiling Your Findings into Finished Work With Impactio

The ultimate goal of all research is to create an impact but to do so, your work must be compiled into accurate, reputable finished pieces with all of your findings professionally incorporated into one final article ready for publication. With so much on your plate, using a complicated program or multiple programs to do this can be a waste of time. That’s why many experts around the world turn to Impactio to do the job.

Impactio is an all-in-one platform designed for experts like you to make your research compilation and follow-up simple and streamlined. With Impactio, you can use premade templates to create your work, turn citation and publication data into charts, graphs, and tables, and finalize your information into professional PDF documents and web pages ready to submit to your journal or edited collection publisher.

Follow the impact of your work through Impactio’s citation indicator tracker and connect with others to collaborate and engage professionally in Impactio’s network of scholars. When you want everything you need for your published work to be in one program, Impactio is the answer.