São Paulo Conferences

I am currently in Brazil to participate in two conferences:

·         IX ANPTUR – The annual conference of the Brazilian Association of Tourism Research and Post-graduation (30-31 August)

·         V CLAIT – Latin  American Tourism Research Conference (3-5 September)

This is the third time I have attended the ANPTUR conference, having attended both in 2008 and 2010. My active participation in this year’s conferences involved running a 2h30m workshop on publishing in English Language Tourism (ELT) journals. The workshop started with a 30 minute presentation by Rosana Mazaro, from Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN). Rosana introduced the latest developments in the funding environment for international co-operation.

At present, only around 30 articles have been published in ELT journals by academics affiliated to Brazilian institutions. By any measure, this is a rather low level of publication. My session focused on the differences between publishing in a Brazilian and English language tourism journals. There are many differences both in terms of the research process on which the publication is based, and how the research is communicated. However, in my study on the barriers to publishing in ELT journals (see post from April) it was clear that the overwhelming majority of Brazilian researchers were not aware of such differences. This is not surprising because they have never gone through the process of submitting a paper to these journals.

In my session, three topics were covered - communication (both language and linguistic issues), literature review and research process/methodology. Simple things like the length of sentences can make a difference on how the research is perceived by the reader. Articles in Brazilian tourism journals tend to feature much longer sentences. I gave an example from a Brazilian journal where a sentence contained 129 words! In the example from an ELT journal, no sentence had more than 3 lines. Other themes within the communication section included the need to use simple language and the structure of arguments. Finally, I also shared my technique of developing ‘lists of expressions’. I sued (and still use whenever needed) this list to become familiar with the specific language used in writing/reporting about each of the components of a journal article (e.g. literature review, reporting the logistic regression results, reporting limitations and future research).

 

In the literature review section, I explained the three types of literature review (theoretical, integrative and methodological), and emphasised the need to include mainly journals and in English language journals (books and national journals are the norm in articles published in Brazilian tourism journals). I also explained the three levels of analysis at which a literature review can be done: descriptive, analytical and evaluative. With regards to the methodology-process aspects, ELT journals are much more detailed about the process of research, which reflects a concern with the validity and reliability of the evidence required to produce conclusions. I explained the helpfulness of developing a conceptual framework (a-priori for quantitative research, a-posteriori for qualitative-type research), as well as the need to clearly explain the measurement issues (data collection and analysis).

A second part of the presentation focused on developing a strategy for starting to publish in ELT journals. I started by showing the number and range of journals – a list of 76, encompassing a wide range of areas and research traditions. I also showed our assessment system in the UK (based on the ABS journal rankings) and explained the differences to the Brazilian system (based on the QUALIS system). Finally, I illustrated how Brazilian academics could gain the skills required to start submitting papers to ELT journals. 

 

A total of 26 academics participated in the workshop and their feedback was tremendously positive. I have been in discussions with two Brazilian colleagues (who have done their PhD in the UK / Australia) for a while with a view to organise a two-day workshop where we would share our experiences of publishing in ELT journals, much in the light of this workshop. We are in a prime position to do this, as we have made the journey from dreaming of one day of one day being able to do it, to actually do it. After yesterday, I am even more encouraged to make sure this workshop happens.

I also had the chance to attend some of the conference presentations, and it is really positive that the quality of the research being carried out is improving. The conference was very well organised - congralutations to ANPTUR's management committee and to the Anhembi Morumbi University (the hosts) for another successful ANPTUR conference.