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HOW TO GET PUBLISHED AND
WIN RESEARCH FUNDING

Most journal articles and research proposals are rejected. That represents a
waste of everyone’s time, energy, and spirit, especially now when, more than
ever, academic careers are precarious. In this practical book, Professor Abby
Day addresses these two inter-related and most challenging areas for aca-
demics and researchers in their professional careers: how to secure research
funding and how to get research published.
Reviewers, unpaid and often unappreciated, are over-stretched with their
regular academic jobs, and increasingly reluctant to spend time reading
poorly constructed papers or proposals. As fewer reviewers are available, the
waiting time for a decision increases. Everyone loses. It doesn’t have to be
like that. Professor Day’s ground-breaking strategy covers both publishing
and funding challenges in similar, yet distinct ways. Lack of time? Con-
flicting priorities? No idea where to start or what matters most? This book
explains how to overcome these and other common obstacles to successful
publication and funding. For the first time, one book covers both activities,
with practical guidance for setting your strategy and purpose, identifying
the right publisher or funder, and understanding your audience and the key
criteria for success, as well as helpful advice for writing and managing the
challenges of an academic career. This book draws on the first and second
editions of two international bestsellers, How to Get Research Published in
Journals and Winning Research Funding. Based on original research with
editors, funders, and successful academics, plus two decades of running
international workshops on publishing and funding, Professor Day has now
updated and merged these two critically acclaimed texts.
This book is essential reading for graduate students and early career fac-
ulty members, who will gain new and effective insights and strategies to se-
cure funding and publication opportunities to help develop their academic
careers.

Abby Day is Professor of Race, Faith and Culture in Sociology, Gold-

smiths, University of London, UK. Before entering academe, Abby spent 20
years in the international academic publishing industry as editor, reviewer,
and publisher. She is Executive Editor for the Association for the Sociology
of Religion, Trustee responsible for publishing in the Sociological Review
Foundation, and a member of the Economic and Social Research Council
Peer Review College and of several journal review boards. She is a former
Trustee and Publications Director for the British Sociological Association.
HOW TO GET PUBLISHED AND
WIN RESEARCH FUNDING

Abby Day
Designed cover image: © Getty Images / elenabs

First published 2023

by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

© 2023 Abby Day

The right of Abby Day to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in
accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or

registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Day, Abby, 1956– author.
Title: How to get published and win research funding / Abby Day.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York : Routledge, 2023. |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2022057688 (print) | LCCN 2022057689 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781032195452 (hardback) | ISBN 9781032195445 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781003259718 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Scholarly publishing. | Academic writing. | Proposal writing
for grants. | Proposal writing in research. | Research grants.
Classification: LCC Z286.S37 D39 2023 (print) | LCC Z286.S37 (ebook) |
DDC 808.02—dc23/eng/20230302
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022057688
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022057689

ISBN: 978-1-032-19545-2 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-032-19544-5 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-25971-8 (ebk)

DOI: 10.4324/9781003259718

Typeset in Garamond
by codeMantra
CONTENTS

Prefacevii

PART I
Setting a strategy 1
1 Introduction: a circle of success 3
2 Why publish (or not?) 20
3 Why look for research funding? 35
4 What is good research? 51
5 Diversity and inclusion in research 66
6 A sense of purpose 81
7 So what? implications 98

PART II
Knowing your audience 117
8 Choosing the right publisher or funder 119
9 Understanding editors, reviewers, readers 137
10 Criteria for success 153

PART III
Papers, proposals, and beyond 173
11 Writing better, writing faster 175
12 Managing relationships and academic careers 194

Index205
PREFACE

This book is an updated version of How to Get Research Published in Journals

and Winning Research Funding.
When I first wrote How to Get Research Published in Journals in 1986 I
was a professional editor and publishing consultant. In 1999 I decided to
move into academe full time, returning as a ‘mature’ student to university
where I took an MA and then a PhD in Religious Studies at Lancaster Uni-
versity in the UK, focusing on the sociology of religion. I then researched
and wrote Winning Research Funding in 2002 and updated How to Get Re-
search Published in Journals in 2007. At the time of writing I am Professor
of Race, Faith and Culture in the Sociology Department at Goldsmiths,
University of London.
For the first time, one book covers both activities, drawing on the sec-
ond and first editions of those two books, based on original research with
editors, funders, and successful academics, plus two decades of running
international workshops on publishing and funding.
I was struck by the awful realization that most articles and research pro-
posals are rejected. That represents a waste of everyone’s time, energy, and
spirit, especially now when, more than ever, academic careers are precar-
ious. Reviewers, unpaid and often unappreciated, are over-stretched with
their regular academic jobs, and increasingly reluctant to spend time read-
ing poorly constructed papers or proposals. As fewer reviewers are available,
the waiting time for a decision increases. Everyone loses.
This book is a merger of several revised chapters from How to Get Re-
search Published in Journals (HGRPJ) (2nd edition 2008) and Winning Re-
search Funding (WRF) (1st edition 2003). Both titles have sold well and
met with good reviews. The new book merges much material from both
texts and updates the examples throughout. It retains its primary focus on
journals, as the most valuable form of publication for people wanting to
enhance their reputation, while offering occasional insights into book pub-
lishing as appropriate.
viii Preface

When the original book HGRPJ was published (1998), academics were
still reading journals in the library and therefore had a tangible, close under-
standing of what a journal is. Now, libraries don’t even stock paper journals
and few students or early career academics ever visit the online site, prefer-
ring instead to keyword search for a particular paper and download that.
This means that the latest generation of academics have a disconnected,
disembodied engagement with journals and are ill-prepared for publishing
when they know so little about the journal or its community.
Further, there are many technological developments concerning paper
and proposal submission, publicity, production, and collaboration, as well
as name changes and new important bodies in the field. This has required
chapter-by-chapter updating and revision. Open Access and proliferation
of publishing sites provide new opportunities and also hidden dangers for
those not prepared for the sometime unscrupulous activities.
There are primarily four new developments with which this volume
engages:

1. In teaching with the books and running workshops at universities

worldwide, I realized increasingly that people interested in publish-
ing are also interested in funding and that my key success factors for
each overlap considerably. They are all linked in what I describe as an
interdependent virtuous ‘Circle of Success’ underpinning a success-
ful academic career: publications strengthen chances of obtaining
research funding, which produces more publications, all building an
author’s and institution’s reputation, leading to more research fund-
ing and publications. This forms the basis of the new Chapter 1 The
Circle of Success.
2. Chapters 4 and 5 address the long-ignored ‘elephant in the room’
about the ethics of publishing and funding. Questions are being
asked throughout the academy about how the knowledge we pro-
duce can be ‘decolonized’. This book acknowledges those issues,
highlighting areas where publications and funding experiences are
unequal and how some people are trying to address this.
3. Because the academic world is increasingly unstable, many early ca-
reer researchers will depend on research funding for their jobs. This
means they now must manage their careers as a series of short-to-
medium term projects. This book addresses that reality and discusses
how people manage their careers as contract, fixed-term research-
ers and take a strategic approach to publications. This idea is woven
throughout and covered in a new substantial section in Chapter 3,
 Preface ix

Why do you want research funding?, and Chapter 12, Managing

relationships and academic careers.
4. Novice authors and researchers often fail to appreciate how much
they, not their publisher or funder, will need to do to publicize their
work. This is addressed in detail in Chapter 12, where a section on
‘being your own publicist’ discusses creating strategies that will en-
sure the work is being read and seen by the people who matter most,
mainly focusing on social media, launches, and conferences.

During my career I became associated with the British Sociological Asso-

ciation where I was a Trustee with special responsibilities for publications,
working closely with Sage Publishing. I then moved onto being a Trustee
with special responsibilities for publications with the Sociological Review
Foundation. Both experiences gave me new opportunities to consider pub-
lications more widely, in new networks and with new technologies. I was
therefore delighted to be given the opportunity to review these two books
and expand and update key sections.
I also benefitted from reading the many reviews this book has received
in the past ten years. Most were gratifyingly positive and where there was
criticism, I have tried to take the comments constructively into this new
edition – apart from one which referred to my somewhat relentlessly breezy,
cheery tone. For that I make no apologies: I have facilitated too many work-
shops with nervous and fearful novice writers to make any changes to what
I hope is an enthusiastic and encouraging ‘voice’.
Much, of course, has remained the same because, largely, the world of
academe and publishing still operates in much the same way. This is a com-
munity of scholars – teachers and researchers – devoted to learning and
discovery and to sharing what they have learned and discovered. One way
they do that is through publishing in journals and the other is to participate
in different kinds of collaborations through funded research. This book is
designed to show you how to do both.

Abby Day
London 2023
PART I
SETTING A STRATEGY
1 INTRODUCTION
A circle of success

Introduction
Becoming a published academic is both a dream and necessity; being funded
these days may be a way to increase visibility and value for some, or the only
means of doing academic work for others. Since the first edition of How to
Get Research Published in Journals was published in 1986, its second edition
in 2008 and Winning Research Funding published in 2003, I have engaged
with academics worldwide, in many disciplines, and at different stages in
their careers. Some people I first met as my students, others as my mentors,
and many more as participants in workshops and webinars. For many years
I hosted separate events – one for getting published, and another for getting
funded. Increasingly, it became less coherent to separate those two strands.
At a writing workshop, people often asked my advice for getting funded,
and at funding workshops, people wanted to know how to increase their
chances of publication.
As academic life changed from an expectation of steady work and ten-
ure to something now much more precarious, becoming a well-published
author and a funded researcher was no longer options for those who had
the time and inclination to write yet another paper and submit yet another
funding proposal. For many early career scholars, their only hope for em-
ployment was a series of short-term, funded projects for which evidence of a
good publication record was a necessary part of their proposal and any hope
for success.
Many novice academics are unaware of one of the most important aspects
of their publishing career: anything they send to a journal must be original.
This means that if in their haste to be published following a PhD they have
already published their thesis as a book, they have likely ruined their chances
of being published in a top journal.
And so, as I introduced key points and answered questions at separate
publishing and funding events it became obvious that much of my advice

DOI: 10.4324/9781003259718-2
4 SETTING A STRATEGY

was the same, whether they were asking about being published or funded.
The detail, of course, differed: which journals I might recommend or what
funding body seemed most appropriate for them would change depending
on their career stage or discipline. But those details were, I knew, necessary
but insufficient conditions for success. What they really needed to know,
and to practise, were the fundamental principles that governed both activ-
ities: how and where in their overall strategy did those options fit? And,
yes, we were all impressed that they could list all their methods, show how
their research fit into a wider body of literature, itemize their findings, and
demonstrate their validity, but so what? Why did it matter, and to whom?
How well did they understand their own originality and contribution to
their fields? Who did they want to reach? Who really mattered and why?
Who cared?
That is why this current book needed to be written. Those stories needed
to be told. I knew that only by combining the shared principles of both pub-
lishing and funding, and then diving deeper into the detail each required,
would the needs of early, mid- and even later career academics be met. Most
importantly, only by bringing together the different aspects of publishing
and funding could I provide the full picture of what, for every academic, is
an inter-locked, inter-dependent Circle of Success.
As an academic gets published, that success feeds into a research pro-
posal and increases the chances of funding; those two activities increase

Research
Research funding
publishing

Research
reputation

Figure 1.1 Circle of success.

 Introduction 5

an academic’s visibility and reputation as a researcher; the funded project

opens dissemination routes, including publications, which once more
enhance their profile and strengths for being funded. And so, the cycle
continues.
It is important to note that, despite the sense of precarity and competi-
tion that pervades academe today, it was in some ways ever thus. Academ-
ics are reading and publishing research in academic journals for much the
same reason as they have since 1665, when the first scientific journal in the
English-speaking world, The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society,
was launched. Academics seek money for funded projects as academics and
artists have for centuries. In the 16th century, the Medici family in Flor-
ence were both bankers and popes. Without them, the world would never
have seen the glories of Michelangelo. British artist Damien Hirst was first
funded by Charles Saatchi who co-owned an advertising agency. A 2019 re-
port by Arts Council England (Private Investment in Culture Survey 2019)
showed that more than 90 per cent of arts and culture organizations had
received in the previous year some kind of funding from the private sector.
In most countries, the private sector funds most scientific research, followed
by research councils.
Those examples are not exhaustive, but my point is to show that most re-
search has always been, and still is, funded. Further, it would be spurious, and
a great disservice to many fine academics, to suggest that funded research is
somehow less worthwhile, or less ‘objective’ or ‘independent’ than unfunded
research. There has always been poor research, biased research, and falsified
findings, but the source of its funding is not, I suggest, the causal variable. It
is perfectly possible to produce shoddy work without external funding. And
for those who eschew external funding and depend on time and resources
from the university department, why would they be unmarked by wider
pressures and expectations? The way most research contracts are created and
executed makes it unlikely that a funder will intervene to cover up or change
results to suit its own objectives. Nevertheless, problems can occur, and these
are discussed in future chapters. For now, my point is simply to convey that
getting published and funded are the twin, conjoined activities that have
always fuelled academe and likely always will. The purpose of this book is
to share the success and failure stories that can help academics navigate this
sometimes difficult and largely unfamiliar terrain.
I now want to review current practices of journal publishing and external
funding to highlight what has changed recently, what is likely to change,
what will likely remain the same, and why any of that may or may not mat-
ter to any academic.
6 SETTING A STRATEGY

Academic publishing: trends and changes

There are three main issues driving change – and stability – in the publishing
field:

1. Pressures to publish.
2. Places to publish.
3. Profitability of publishing.

Pressures to publish
One major change over the last ten years has been an increased pressure from
funders, government, and universities to disseminate more widely. It has
become increasingly apparent during the last decade or so that, one way or
other, academics must publicize their research. Publicly and privately funded
research comes with certain conditions, such as conducting the research eth-
ically, completing it on time and within budget, and – most importantly –
disseminating the results. Research councils, charities, and the private sector
all stipulate that their funding is linked to dissemination. Some funders may
even ring-fence a specific amount of money to pay for dissemination when a
project ends. Research councils often tie end-of-award decisions to dissemi-
nation. Indeed, specifying how you will do that is one of the most important
critical success factors in any funding application.
That is why, as I outlined above, the two activities of funding and pub-
lishing are best reviewed together. Even research that is indirectly funded as
part of an academic’s salary comes with the expectation to publish, which
then feeds into an assessment process that determines promotion, or some-
times how much money an institution will receive from government. In the
UK, for example, the Research Excellence Framework (REF) is carried out
by the UK’s higher education funding bodies: Research England, the Scot-
tish Funding Council (SFC), the Higher Education Funding Council for
Wales (HEFCW), and the Department for the Economy, Northern Ireland
(DfE). Research publications are part of what are known as ‘outputs’: a pub-
lication, a performance, or an exhibition. These are considered according to
three criteria: their quality, their impact beyond academia, and the research
environment (usually the department or wider institution) that supports the
research. The people who make those judgements are academics and mem-
bers of the wider public who sit on panels of 34 subject areas called ‘units
of assessment’.
The Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) which score best on the REF
receive more funding than those that do not. Indeed, one quarter of central
 Introduction 7

government research income goes to just four UK universities – Oxford,

Cambridge, University College London, and Imperial College. That those
who have the highest research ratings get more money leads, some argue, to
a self-perpetuating structural elitism in education. Public money is not, ac-
cording to many researchers, distributed fairly amongst institutions. Many
people are critical of the REF for this reason, arguing that new universities
or those without a long research record and infrastructure to support it can
never break through into the ‘elite’ arena.
This puts more pressure on universities to increase their research profile,
and a major strategy to achieve this is through publishing. The pressure to
publish is combined with increasing choices of places to publish. In our
more global, interactive, digital, instant age, authors are able to choose more
and varied routes to dissemination. I will review a few below.

Popular media
Radio, magazines, newspapers, television, and newsletters all offer excellent
opportunities for academics to publicize their research. Many funding bod-
ies and universities require researchers to issue press releases and co-operate
with in-house public relations experts.

Reports
Most funders expect the Principal Investigator to write a publicly available,
final report summarizing the project’s key findings. These are usually pub-
lished in the funder’s own newsletters or websites. It may also be appropriate
to produce reports for government or other bodies if there are policy issues
to be considered.

Social media
People communicate their research via numerous means, from Twitter and
Meta to personal and institutional blogs. Here, discussion is largely unme-
diated, unedited, and seen to be free from more overt forms of commercial
or political controls.

Conferences and seminars

Academic conferences and seminars are ideal venues to disseminate research
and to network with other researchers, sometimes forging lasting collabo-
rative relationships. Some conferences will publish presentations on their
8 SETTING A STRATEGY

websites and in their newsletters, or issue post-conference journals or edited

collections based on the papers. Many researchers use conferences as the first
site for presenting their research and then amending their papers for poten-
tial journal publication. Seminars, usually smaller and more focused events,
provide ideal opportunities to discuss people’s research in detail.

Predatory journals
Academics are increasingly receiving unsolicited invitations to publish in
journals or edit special issues of journals. If you are an Early Career re-
searcher, receiving such an invitation should be your first clue that some-
thing is not quite right. A reputable journal would never approach an
unknown academic with a direct invitation to publish or edit a special issue.
Any such invitations are made directly from the Editor to a named academic
of considerable reputation. So-called ‘predatory journals’ are concocted by
non-academics in order to lure – prey on – unsuspecting authors to send in
their manuscripts, for which they will be charged a fee. The result may be
something looking like an online publication, with one important differ-
ence: no one respects it, or you for being there.
To flesh out more detail about what constitutes a predatory journal,
scholars and publishers met in 2019 to discuss this worrying trend and de-
cide what could be done about it. As reported in Nature, Grudniewicz et al.
(2019), the group agreed with the following definition:

Predatory journals and publishers are entities that prioritize self-interest

at the expense of scholarship and are characterized by false or misleading
information, deviation from best editorial and publication practices, a
lack of transparency, and/or the use of aggressive and indiscriminate
solicitation practices.

They also found that there were few ways to immediately spot the predator,
as many have infiltrated reputable databases and have cloaked themselves
with an aura of respectability. To help potential authors recognize a preda-
tory journal, the group agreed that there were several revealing characteristics
including false information on their websites about, for example, composi-
tion of editorial boards and incorrect claims of membership of organizations
or indexing systems; lack of transparency; inconsistency and often incorrect
spelling or use of grammar; aggressive, indiscriminate, repeated, excessively
flattering solicitations. One of their other ‘warning signs’ is, to me, the most
obvious: there is a clear mismatch between the purported scope of the jour-
nal and the expertise of the author. This problem easily occurs when the
 Introduction 9

journal and author are not in the same academic community. That is why,
as I discuss in detail throughout this book, it is important to develop a co-
herent and sustainable strategy about who the main audiences are for your
work, and where you are most likely to find them.

Books
Many academics want to publish a book, either as a result of their PhD or
other major research project. This can be an excellent way to publicize a
large project and can give a satisfying feeling of ‘closure’ to a lengthy piece
of research. Before rushing to write your book, remember that all publishers
require detailed proposals: you can visit their websites and look at their tem-
plates and helpful suggestions. If they accept your proposal, they will then
send it for review to judge from external assessment whether or not there is
a market for your proposed book.
Apart from a book you’ve written, you might also consider contributing
a chapter to someone else’s book. This usually happens because someone ap-
proaches you and invites you to do so. In that event, you must bear in mind
that the editor will expect your chapter to fit into the collection as a whole
and you may therefore have to adapt your work considerably.
Book publishing does have several disadvantages. It is time-consuming,
with little financial compensation unless you’ve written a best-selling text-
book. It will also not reach a large audience, given that academic books sell
in the hundreds and low thousands at best, and its content may be digitized
and made freely available through the internet. Academic books are often not
reprinted once they sell out, and therefore your book may disappear forever.
More worryingly for many academics, books are not subject to the same
rigorous review process as are journal papers. And, once the book is pub-
lished it may become more difficult to publish the content in journals be-
cause it is no longer original. Journal websites are clear about the need for
originality and exclusivity. Originality: The Brazilian Journal of Physics (Sub-
mission Guidelines n.d.), for example, states clearly that ‘submission of a
manuscript implies: that the work described has not been published before;
that it is not under consideration for publication anywhere else’.
The Legon Journal of the Humanities (Promoting Access to African Re-
search 1974) makes a similar point, and also calls attention to the practice
of self-plagiarism: when authors duplicate their own material they have pub-
lished elsewhere:

For all its issues, LJH only publishes original contributions (i.e., papers
that have not been published elsewhere) and therefore, disapproves of
10 SETTING A STRATEGY

duplicate publication and multiple submissions of the same paper to

different publication outlets. In consonance with best academic prac-
tices, it equally takes a very dim view of the illegitimate direct repli-
cation of material in the form of plagiarism, including self-plagiarism.
The Editorial Board will not only ban authors of plagiarized material
from any subsequent association with the journal, but also bring any
breach of intellectual property rights to the attention of the contribu-
tor’s institution.

In summary, while there are many routes to dissemination, academics need

to ensure that any they choose to not replicate each other. How academics
choose which medium to use will depend on the audience with whom you
want to communicate.
Most large-scale research projects will target a mix of media from news-
letters, books, and journals to radio, the web, and television. Whatever the
mix you choose, it is likely that the most important publication for your
academic career will be the academic journal. Unique amongst all media, a
journal paper is systematically double- or triple-blind peer-reviewed and, for
the most highly rated journals, difficult to get published in, with acceptance
rates in the region of 2 to 10 per cent. The draw of scarcity and perceived
value therefore serves as the mark of quality and excellence in your field.
That is why many academics place journal publishing at the top of their list.
And yet, the nature of what a journal actually is has changed substantially
over the past 20 years or so. This change has been driven by both pressures
described above – the pressure to publish and the places available – and a
third pressure: the profitability of publishing.

Profitability of publishing
In the mid-1990s, people were accessing research mainly through reading
paper-based journals and occasionally by finding journal papers on the in-
ternet. Today, the reverse is more likely: we read paper-based journals less
and download the electronic version more.
It may be helpful here to summarize briefly the process from submission
to publication. An author usually submits a paper to a journal via an elec-
tronic platform, enters their personal information, submits an abstract, pro-
vides a title and keywords, and attaches the paper. The editor (or assistant)
is notified by email that a paper has been submitted and the author receives
an automatic email acknowledgement. If the editor concludes that the pa-
per meets the editorial objectives of the journal (and much more about this
 Introduction 11

later), then the editor, often with an assistant, selects referees and sends the
paper for review. Referees receive an email notifying them a paper is available
for review. Referees download the paper, review it, and send their comments
through the system to the editor, who makes one of only three possible deci-
sions: accept, revise, or reject. The editor notifies the author.
If the paper is accepted outright – which rarely happens – then the au-
thor celebrates, signs forms regarding copyright and warranties, and awaits
publication in several months or a year’s time. In the case of ‘revise’, the
author should also celebrate (but often sulks – and more about this later)
revises, resubmits the paper and, (subject, sometimes, to further review and
revision), eventually receives the final paper, known as a ‘proof ’ in the form
of a PDF file to check. The journal is then assembled according to its pag-
ination budget and mix of papers, book reviews, research notes, and so on,
and signed off by the editor. Many publishers then send their journals to a
printer that produces a paper-based version and mails the final copies to sub-
scribers. Numbers are small because most subscribers to academic journals
are university libraries, not individuals. Most publishers today are seeking to
reduce their print copies as libraries are clearing their shelves and relying on
digital versions.
There are also, apart from paper-based traditional academic journals,
peer-reviewed digital journals which have only ever existed in digital format
and offer added benefits to authors not found in the traditional model. For
example, digital journals can be timelier, shortening the interval between
submission and publication. Because they are not constrained by space
and cost factors, many allow longer papers than would be possible in paper
journals – although some editors of electronic journals still maintain word
limits in the interest of coherence. Publishing in a digital journal allows
more interesting ways to present data in a flexible, electronic format, which
may make it more attractive to authors using tables and graphs and wanting
to link to other internet-based sources.
Whether existing first as a digital journal or a paper-based, traditional
journal, journal content available on the internet is digitally encrypted so
that the content is accessible only to subscribers. This is when the perception
of ‘the journal’ may begin to be obscured. Most people accessing a paper
on the internet find it through keyword searches, not through navigating
through the journal’s home page and browsing through the most recent is-
sue. The practice of key-word access may hide the paper’s source and, con-
sequently, the means by which it was produced. What is not obvious to
the researcher using search engines is that the source of the paper is most
often a traditional journal, created initially through the traditional means
12 SETTING A STRATEGY

of submission, peer review, revision, proofreading, and printing described

above. While the content may then be read as a single paper on a web page,
its original place was likely in a journal alongside six or seven other papers,
book reviews, research notes, and an editorial. Recognizing that source is
important because it provides the context within which any academic paper
is initially judged by the editorial team. Much more about that later.
The drive towards electronic access has caused the issue of ownership to
become hotly contested amongst publishers, government, and academics.
Journal publishing is expensive but managed well can be highly profitable.
The academic publishing industry is tough and precise. Strong publishers
survive; others fail. Even non-commercial publishers, such as learned soci-
eties, want their journals to make money, often as a means of subsidising
other activities of the society. Over the last decade, many small publishers
have been acquired by larger ones and the larger ones have acquired each
other as the industry consolidates. How journal subscriptions are sold and
bought also reflects this consolidation. Subscriptions to scholarly journals
are sold largely to librarians, either directly or via an agent. The librarian may
take advice from others, such as departments’ library committees or from
other library users but will make a final choice based on the budget available.
The journal may be bought as a single item, but more frequently today it will
form part of a package of a number of journals, sometimes shared amongst
several institutions in what is known as ‘consortia’. Academic papers are then
typically made available through different portals, platforms, or gateways
shared by universities and the large database aggregators which manage the
content. An academic’s institutional password is the key to unlock many of
these invisible, but sometimes impenetrable, doors.
Now, we enter a battleground where publishers, research funders, govern-
ment agencies, and a few high-profile academics fiercely contest who has the
right to control journal content. One argument is for ‘open access’, on the
basis that research has already been paid for by the research funder or univer-
sity (and ultimately the taxpayer) and therefore should be freely available to
all. The contrary argument is voiced by publishers who claim that they man-
age the peer review process, invest in sales and marketing, and take finan-
cial risks with new journals and therefore should protect their ‘investment’.
The current compromise between free and closed access is the traffic light
model, where commercial publishers can restrict access to subscribers over
journal content for a limited time, usually between six and 24 months, after
which time academics can post their papers on their own websites or deposit
them in Institutional Repositories. Another method is that publication fees
 Introduction 13

become part of a research project’s budget, and therefore the funder (often a
government research council) pays the fees on behalf of the researcher.
One consequence is that authors who are neither funded nor can afford
author submission fees are increasingly denied access to places to publish.
See, for example, Paige Mann (2022) for more discussion, and Chapter 5
in this volume. Another consequence is that the pressure to receive research
funding increases as academics realize that this is, increasingly, the only way
their research papers can be published.
The battle for the rights and profits of publishing will continue to rage.
For academics wanting to publish their work, the questions will always be
the same: what is the best route to those I need to reach, how will it benefit
them and me, and how do I do it in the least amount of time with the most
chance of success?

Choices for funding

Let us now consider the landscape of research funding. The researcher is one
of the most important people in society. Researchers influence decisions and
in so doing, influence lives. As well as providing useful knowledge and some-
times informing government policy and corporate decisions, they influence
how we measure and value the outcomes of research itself. But what governs
success? Who gets funded and who does not?
When I asked people how research funding is won, I received gener-
ally two types of responses. The first is what I would call the ‘top tip’ list.
I asked everyone I interviewed to name, in brief, a few important factors;
those which really ‘make the difference’ between a winning proposal and a
lower-quality one. They clustered under ten broad headings that I call the
‘ten top tips’ and each will be explored through the book:

1. Articulates problem accurately

2. Provides appropriate background
3. Manageable within the time
4. Cost-effective
5. Linked to defined outcomes
6. Seen to make a contribution to the field
7. Clear methodology
8. Concise writing
9. Demonstrates right team approach
10. Has credible academic supervision
14 SETTING A STRATEGY

This book has been written to make researchers’ tasks easier and more fruit-
ful, to understand ‘luck’ for what it really is – careful positioning and astute
judgement. That, more than anything, is what takes the researcher to the
right place and the right people at the right time. The book’s central propo-
sition is that there is poor, good, and best practice in research funding today.
In exploring best practice, we need to go further than our ten top tips. Those
are, indeed, the structural components of research best practice, but not its
foundation.
Winning research funding consistently depends on concepts like value
and partnership. These concepts turn a one-off experience into a long-term,
mutually satisfying relationship where both partners benefit equally. The
benefits extend far beyond money to prestige, knowledge, and influence.
While the top ten tips may seem components of obvious good practice,
these success factors are often ignored by people who fail to win funding.
This may reflect their inexperience or time pressures. We will be discussing
these factors in detail and offering the benefit of many people’s experiences.
Yet beyond those process-related issues is another question: why, all other
things being equal, are some researchers more successful than others? It does
not seem enough to simply do well: it is necessary to do better than that.
What is the meaning of that ‘better’? In other words, what, in research, is
best practice?

Research best practice

Some people say it is factors outside the applicant’s control that make the
difference. Examples of such comments are:

• Themes are designated each year by research councils – how can you
know in advance what they will be?
• A proposal just may not have the right ‘fit’ with the funder.
• Referees may not like you! You may have offended them previously.
It’s a small world and even so-called blind refereeing processes may
be transparent. As one referee remarked: “It’s easy to tell who the
authors are – they’re the ones most frequently referenced”.

Several people, as mentioned earlier, told me that their success was a matter
of ‘luck’. But what is luck? Should we abandon the quest for best practice in
favour of astrology? The following is a typical response to my question – ‘but
what is luck?’. In this case, she was discussing research into a hotly contested
topic that had received a lot of public attention:
 Introduction 15

Well, I mean, there’s always a bit of luck. You can never, you know, you
haven’t got a sort of magic ball to see in the future. You can actually
anticipate that this has got the conditions which is likely to lead to con-
troversy, but it doesn’t mean that controversy is likely to occur. I mean,
of course you can’t, but you can have good hunches and our hunches in
fact were correct at the time.

I will be illustrating how successful applicants for research funding convert

those ‘hunches’ into what they really are: reasonable judgements built up
over time in a field of expertise. Creating winning proposals is about how
to develop those ‘hunches’ into winning research relationships. Of course,
there is always a measure of good fortune in any endeavour. Sometimes it
is a matter of being in the right place at the right time or hitting the right
tone with the right person on the right day. But most of the time it is more
than luck.
People who win research funding and the people who fund them agree
that for most applicants most of the time luck is not the most important fac-
tor: people who win research funding consistently take a different and meas-
urably better approach than those who do not. That ‘approach’ is something
more complex than simply filling out an application form properly, wearing
decent clothes for an interview, carefully reading a call for tender, designing
a research approach, or writing clearly. Clearly, the ‘top tips’ are necessary,
but often insufficient, conditions of success.
That leads me to the second sort of response I received. Most successful
researchers talk more about relationships, proactivity, and partnerships than
they do about applications and proposals. This means that researchers need
to choose a prospective funder who matches their needs and interests. To
work effectively, the relationship needs to be symmetrical and symbiotic.
Imbalanced relationships are flawed from the outset. Recognizing this,
many funders choose not to work with researchers whose focus and ap-
proach are not compatible with theirs. That is a reasonable and fair deci-
sion. Researchers who seek funding from such inappropriate organizations
are likely to be disappointed, even if they receive the money they were
looking for.
Based on the assumption that research funding can represent mutual
long-term benefit to both partners, this book takes a strategic approach.
Whether your desired funding is for a small grant or a five-year programme,
it is likely you will be spending a significant amount of time on your research
and, consequently, on obtaining the funding. In many cases, you will also
be involved with your funder during the research and following. This book
16 SETTING A STRATEGY

aims to help you create a context, a process, and an approach which will
make those partnerships worthwhile and enjoyable.
One of the strongest temptations challenging those who want funding
is to jump into the application stage without thinking through what they
are doing and why. I examine in more detail the question of why research
funding is important. Not everyone needs it and not everyone wants it. We
therefore need to look at research issues, not only from your perspective but
also from that of the funders and other stakeholders.
The research may, for example:

• add conceptually to the current body of knowledge through new

thinking
• add empirically to the current body of knowledge through new
evidence
• expose and correct an error which has been compounded over the
years by researchers who failed to see it
• demonstrate a new way of applying the body of knowledge
• help an organization work differently and better.

Even when the themes and priorities have been articulated by the funding
body, it is the researcher’s task to identify the implications and the result.
Funding bodies, public or private, want to see value for money. The re-
searcher who receives funding needs to demonstrate that it will be used ap-
propriately and that the investment will be worthwhile.
Sometimes, applications fail because the budget is beyond anything the
funder can meet, but they also fail because the cost estimates are unrealis-
tically low. Those who fund research do not evaluate proposals based on
a notion that ‘cheapest is best’. They are, by and large, experienced and
committed people with good judgement about likely returns on investment,
likelihood of successful completion, and the right balance of costs and ben-
efits. Poor budgeting – either too high or too low – may suggest that the
applicant has not reviewed the project carefully or is too inexperienced to
complete it successfully.
I also take a closer look at how funding bodies work and what motivates
them, to help you assess which may be a well-suited partner. Too many
researchers rush around looking for a funding partner in a panic-stricken at-
tempt to find money. Many do not find one or, worse (in the long run), find
one who is not suitable. What do you really want, and who will want you?
This is the time to think about what you can gain from a research part-
nership and what you can give. Funders talk more about ‘value’ than they
 Introduction 17

do about money. The need to deliver value applies to all potential funders,
not just the corporate sector. We look in more detail at particular kinds of
funders: government, research councils, the European Community, charita-
ble foundations, and professional bodies. Getting to know these people and
how they work is a necessary step in forging long-term relationships.
A theme running throughout this book is about creating the relationship.
How will you know if this is the right partner, and you can meet their expec-
tations? Assessing a potential partner’s needs does not need to be a difficult
task. Unfortunately, it is one most often ignored and said to be the most
common cause of application rejection: ‘we often wonder if academics can
read’, one funder said bluntly. One successful researcher explained:

Obtaining funding is an exercise in ‘selling’ a project or set of ideas to an

audience that has a particular set of interests. Within the context of such
a process, there is an inevitable degree of compromise, as projects – or
at least their initial outline – are adjusted in accordance with the stated
priorities of funding bodies.

Maintaining the position of ‘relationship’ means this is a valuable, enquir-

ing process. This continues into how the relationship develops. Sometimes,
research partnerships break down because each party has different expecta-
tions. This will apply to the process of carrying out the research as well as its
outcomes. How do academics respond when the research question in a call
for tender is clearly wrong, or the proposed methodology inappropriate? We
explore later how to meet the funder’s expectations without compromising
your own values or preferred approach.
The task of preparing a proposal and, sometimes, making a presenta-
tion, is time-consuming and arduous, but writing and presenting a pro-
posal is unlikely to be rewarded if researchers skip the preparation stages
described throughout this book. The proposal and a presentation are stages
in the process of successfully winning research funding, not the whole of
the process. Some processes include a phase of feedback, where the funder
proposes changes or demands reductions in time and money. In some cases,
responding to a request for a change leads to more money, not less: it is not
always bad news. Feedback from a proposal is free, often excellent, advice.
Successful relationships are nurtured. Knowing how to manage the research
partnership will often involve new skills and new ways of working.
One of the necessary outcomes of most research projects is publication.
This is something which the funder may or may not require; some, for
commercial reasons, may even prohibit it, others may demand it. How do
18 SETTING A STRATEGY

researchers satisfy the need to publish within this complex context? This
becomes increasingly difficult in an environment where contract research is
more prevalent. Here, every moment counts, every day is billed. Research-
ers who successfully manage both research and writing plan for publication
from the outset. It is easier to think through prospective publication routes
when the research is fresh and thriving than when it is finished and grow-
ing stale. As I described at the outset, publishing and funding decisions are
usually intertwined and co-dependent and therefore a thoughtful, strategic
approach is most beneficial.

Using this book

This book is designed to help you answer questions and concerns about pub-
lishing and funding in a systematic, logical format. It is for people who want
and need to be published in academic journals and to win research funding:
researchers, students, and members of faculty.
Publishing and funding may seem like a difficult and mysterious busi-
ness, but they are not. Once you understand how to go about it, and what
will determine your success, it becomes a deeply satisfying experience for the
author, researcher, and ultimately the reader.
This book is based on original research into what quality standards ed-
itors, funding bodies, and reviewers are seeking and the combined experi-
ence of many authors, editors, and reviewers. The conclusions they share
are widely tested in practice in many different academic disciplines in many
different countries. You can therefore be assured that you will be able to
apply their advice with confidence.
The book is in three main parts, reflecting the stages authors and funded
researchers go through as they work towards successful publication. Part I
will help you define your objectives, allowing you to focus on the task ahead
with clarity and economy. Part II invites you to understand more deeply
the needs of editors, reviewers, funders, and readers so that you can align
your objectives with theirs. Part III allows you to pull together all you have
learned into a publishable paper or proposal, looking at the detail of get-
ting the paper or proposal right, and managing the publishing and funding
process from your paper or proposal to, eventually, your relationship with
the larger publishing or funder community. Each chapter ends with action
points to help you apply the principles discussed and practise the techniques
described.
I urge you to adopt the step-by-step process in its chronological order.
The reason many aspiring authors or funded researchers fail is that they
Another random document with
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written by gentlemen of that class, but we never have been able to
find any intelligible explanation of that phenomenon. Yet surely it is
a remarkable one. This country is, in respect of its population, far
more heavily burdened than any of the leading states of Europe—it
has not the climatic advantages of some of them—and it can scarcely
be said to produce the precious metals. Its exports, though
undoubtedly large, were, and are, as nothing to the quantity
produced, intended for the home consumption. It has been
computed, from an investigation of the census taken in 1841, that not
much more than half a million of people, the population being then
nearly twenty seven millions, were employed in the manufacture of
articles for the foreign trade.[33]
It may be useful here to mention that, according to one foreign
statistical authority, Schnabel, the proportion of taxes paid yearly by
each individual in Great Britain, France, and Prussia, was in the
following ratio:—

Great Britain, 18
France, 11⅔
Prussia, 5½

And the comparative rate of agricultural wages is stated thus by

Rau, in his Lehrbuch der Politischen Oekonomie:—

S. D.
Great Britain, (average,) 1 6
France, (do.) 1 0¾
East Prussia, 0 4⅔

These figures, of course, may be slightly inaccurate, but they are

sufficient to show the great variation, both in taxation and wages,
which prevails in the three countries which are here specified; and
we have no reason to believe that, during the few years which have
elapsed since these calculations were made, any material difference
in proportion has taken place. A similar discrepancy prevails in
wages of every kind. For example, Mr Porter tells us that in
Wurtemberg the wages of the artisans in towns are from 1s. 8d. to 4s.
2d. per week; that in Bavaria “labourers are paid at the rate of 8d.
per day in the country, and from 8d. to 1s. 4d. in the towns;” and that
in Saxony “a man employed in his loom, working very diligently from
Monday morning until Saturday night, from five o’clock in the
morning until dusk, and even at times with a lamp, his wife assisting
him in finishing and taking him the work, could not possibly earn
more than 20 groschen (2s. 6d. sterling) per week.” We might have
added many other instances to these, but we judge it to be
unnecessary. We quote them simply for the purpose of showing that
labour in Britain, if heavily taxed, was better remunerated than
elsewhere.
Now, why was it better remunerated? That is—after all that has
been said and written on the subject, and Eolus-bags of oratory, and
hundreds of thousands of reams of paper have been expended on it—
the question, upon the solution of which the merit of the rival
systems depends. It was better remunerated in this way—because in
Great Britain there has been a far greater outlay of capital in every
department and branch of industry, than has been made in any other
country of the world. With us, land has been reclaimed, and brought
under tillage, which elsewhere would have been left in a state of
nature. At an immense cost the difficulties of climate have been
overcome, and the soil rendered productive, and capable of
sustaining an increased number of inhabitants. We must go back
farther than the memory of the present generation can reach, in
order to appreciate the vast nature of the improvements which were
so effected. Since the commencement of the present century, very
nearly four millions of acres, in England alone, have been brought
into cultivation under the Inclosure Acts, besides all that has been
effected by private enterprise—and it is probable that amount
immensely exceeds the other—on land held by a simple tenure.
Eighty years ago, the greater part of the surface of what are now our
best cultivated counties, was covered with heath and ling, and of
course wholly unproductive. It was from this outlay of capital in the
cultivation of the soil that the rapid growth of our towns, and the
great increase of our manufactures, took their rise. The latter cannot
precede—it must always follow the other. The country supplied the
towns with food, and the towns in turn supplied the country with
manufactures. Such being the case, it is evident that the prosperity of
either interest depended greatly upon the circumstances of the other.
If agriculture was depressed, from whatever cause, there was no
longer the same demand as formerly for manufactures; if
manufactures were depressed, the agriculturist suffered in his turn.
But in reality, except from over-trading, and a competition pushed to
an extent which has affected the national interest, it is difficult to
understand how a depression in manufactures for the home trade
could take place, except through and in consequence of agricultural
calamity. The home demand was remarkably steady, and could be
calculated upon with almost a certainty of return. It was reserved for
the enlightened economists of our age to discover that the interests
of agriculture and manufactures were not harmonious. Such, clearly,
was not the theory of our forefathers. The Book of Common Prayer
contains a form of thanksgiving for a good harvest—it has none for a
year of unusual export and import.
We must not, however, pass over without notice, the
circumstances which led to the extraordinary development of
industry and enterprise in Great Britain, in every department.
Without consumers, it is quite evident that agriculture could not
have advanced with such rapid strides; and it is important that there
should be no misunderstanding on this matter. The possession of a
hundred or a thousand acres of land is of little value unless the
owner can command a remunerative market for his produce; nor will
he cultivate his land to the utmost unless he has the assurance of
such a market. It is all very well to say, that, by the expenditure of a
certain sum of money, such and such an amount of crops may be
reared on each acre;—that is a mere feat of agricultural chemistry,
such as Mr Huxtable offered to undertake upon pure sand with the
assistance of pigs’ dung; but the real and only question is—will the
return meet the outlay? Without some unusual and extraordinary
cause to increase the number of consumers, it is clear to us that the
progress of agriculture must have been comparatively slow; and
accordingly, we find that cause in the Continental war, which
continued for nearly a quarter of a century, and which has effected
such mighty changes—the end of which is not yet apparent—in the
social position of Great Britain.
To maintain that war, the resources of this country were taxed to
the utmost. So great were the demands, that they could not possibly
have been met but for two things—one being the result of internal
arrangement, and the other arising from external circumstances. The
first of these was the suspension of cash payments, and the
extension, or rather creation, of credit, arising from an unlimited
paper currency. The second was the monopoly of the foreign
markets, which we engrossed, in virtue of our naval supremacy. No
writer on the social state of Britain, even at the present hour, and no
political economist who does not specially refer to these two
circumstances, are worth consulting. Better put their volumes into
the fire, than discuss effects without regard to their antecedent
cause.
It may be that the extent to which that unlimited currency was
pushed, has since had disastrous results. If unwisely permitted
without control or regulation, it was, as we think, contracted in a
manner even more unwise; and the practical consequence has been
an enormous addition to the weight of the public debt. But without a
currency of very large extent—without the credit which that currency
created—Great Britain could not have continued the struggle so long,
nor brought it to a triumphant issue. It was this that stimulated both
agriculture and manufactures, the latter having, in addition, the
inestimable privilege of the command of the markets of the world,
without any interference of a rival. Reclaimed fields and new
manufactories were the products of that period; and unquestionably
there never was an era in our history when prosperity appeared to be
more generally diffused. If prices were high, so were wages.
Employment was plentiful, because improvement was progressing
on every side, and no jealousy existed between the manufacturer and
the agriculturist. During fifteen years, from 1801 to 1815, the average
annual quantity of wheat and wheat-flour imported to this country
was only 506,000 quarters.
Perhaps it may be instructive here to quote the words of an acute
observer in 1816, regarding the improvements which had taken
place, before any check occurred. The writer of the historical
summary in the Edinburgh Annual Register for that year thus
expresses himself:—

“During the continuance of the last war, many things had conspired to stimulate
to the highest extent the exertions of every class of the people of England. Cut off
by the decrees of Buonaparte from direct intercourse with some of the richest
countries of Europe, the policy which England had adopted in revenge of this
exclusion, had greatly increased the action of those many circumstances which
naturally tended towards rendering her the great, or rather the sole entrepot, of the
commerce of the world. In her the whole of that colonial trade which had formerly
been sufficient to enrich, not her alone, but France and Holland also, had now
centred. The inventive zeal of her manufacturers had gone on from year to year
augmenting and improving branches of industry, in which, even before, she had
been without a rival. The increase of manufactures had been attended with a
perpetual increase in the demand for agricultural produce, and the events of the
two years of scarcity (as they were called) lent an additional spring to the motion of
those whose business it was to meet this demand. The increase which took place in
the agricultural improvements of the island, was such as had never before been
equalled in any similar period of time. Invention followed invention, for
economising labour, and increasing production; till throughout no inconsiderable
part of the whole empire the face of the country was changed. ‘It may safely be
said,’ asserted Mr Brougham, ‘that without at all comprehending the waste lands
wholly added to the productive tenantry of the island, not perhaps that two blades
of grass now grow where one only grew before, but certainly that five grow where
four used to be; and that this kingdom, which foreigners were wont to taunt as a
mere manufacturing and trading country, inhabited by a shopkeeping nation, is, in
reality, for its size, by far the greatest agricultural state in the world!’”

Contrary, perhaps, to the general expectation, the close of the war

and the return of peace operated disastrously upon the internal
interests of the country. Though the manufacturing energies of the
Continent had been checked, its agriculture was ready and available;
and accordingly, no sooner were the ports opened than prices fell at
an alarming rate. The result was not only immediate agricultural
distress in Britain, but the greatest depression in every branch of
manufacture connected with the home trade. The agricultural
distress needs no explanation. The vast improvements on land had
been made with borrowed money; and when prices went down, the
proprietor too often found himself unable from his rents to pay the
bare interest of the money expended. Yet, had these improvements
not taken place, how could Britain have continued the struggle so
long—how could her manufacturing population have been fed? These
are questions never considered now, especially by those agitators
who revile the landlords, or rather the Legislature, for the imposition
of the Corn Laws; but the truth is, that, unless the corn duty had
been then imposed, England must, within a very few years, either
have exhibited the humiliating spectacle of a bankrupt and ruined
state, or been plunged in revolution. The distress rapidly spread to
the manufacturers—for example, those engaged in the silk trade, and
the iron and coal-workers of Staffordshire and Wales. The fall in the
price of corn produced its natural effect by limiting the consumption
of everything else; and, as if to crown the calamity, the exporting
manufacturers, in their eagerness for gain, committed precisely the
same blunder, from the effects of which they are now suffering so
severely; and by creating a glut in the Continental markets, they both
annihilated their own profits, and excited such an alarm in foreign
governments as to give rise to a system of prohibitory duties, which
continues to the present hour. Then followed the resumption of cash
payments, with all its train of ruin—a measure which, whether
necessary or not in principle, could not have been carried but for the
existence of a corn law, which in some degree mitigated its pressure.
In a country so loaded with debt as ours, it is in vain to talk, as
Lord John Russell lately did, of a “natural price.” The term, indeed,
has no kind of significance under any circumstances; and we are
perfectly certain that the noble lord, when he employed it, was not
attempting to clothe a distinct idea in words. He found the phrase
somewhere—perhaps borrowed it from the Economist—and used it,
because he thought it sounded well. If he could reduce the price of all
commodities here to the level of that which prevails in a Continental
country—a consummation which appears to be contemplated and
desired by the Free-Traders—the result would necessarily be a like
decadence of our wealth—not accompanied, however, by a relaxation
of our present burdens. The high wages which the working-classes
receive in this country, contrasted with the low wages which are
given elsewhere, depend upon the return which is yielded to the
capitalist who calls their labour into being. Now, let us see what
effect depression in any one great branch of industry exercises upon
the working-classes, who are not immediately dependent upon it for
their subsistence.
This involves one of the most curious phenomena in economical
science. When an interest is depressed, it does not always happen—
especially in the first stage of depression—that the labourers
attached to that interest feel immediately the consequences of the
decline. Agricultural wages, for example, do not fluctuate according
to the price of wheat. The retrenchment which becomes necessary in
consequence of lessened returns is usually effected, in the first
instance at least, by curtailment of personal expenditure on the part
of the cultivator—by abstinence from purchases, not necessary
indeed, but convenient—and by that species of circumspect, but
nameless thrift, which, at the end of a year, makes a very
considerable difference in the amount of tradesmen’s bills. This kind
of retrenchment is the easiest, the safest, and the most humane; and
it is not until the depression becomes so great as to render other and
more stringent modes of economising necessary, that the agricultural
labourer is actually made to feel his entire dependence upon the
land, and the interest which he has in its returns. The small
tradesmen and dealers in the country and market towns are usually
the first to discern what is called the pressure of the times. They find
that the farmers are no longer taking from them the same quantity of
goods as before; that their stocks, especially of the more expensive
articles, remain on their hands unsold; and that there is no demand
for novelties. If the depression goes so far as to necessitate a
diminution of rental, then the same economy, but on a wider scale, is
practised by the landlord. Expensive luxuries are given up,
establishments contracted, and the town’s-people begin to complain
of a dull season, for which they find it impossible to account, seeing
that money is declared to be cheap. All this reacts upon the artisans
very severely; because in towns labour has a far less certain tenure
than in the country; and when there is a cessation of demand,
workmen, however skilled, are not only liable, but certain to be
dismissed. If the shopkeeper cannot get his goods off his hands, the
manufacturer need not expect to prevail upon him to give any farther
orders. The demand upon the mills becomes slack, and the
manufacturer, finding that there is no immediate prospect of revival,
considers it his duty to have recourse to short time.
This is precisely what has been going on for the last two years.
Landlords and farmers have curtailed their expenditure in
consequence of the great fall of prices; and the parties who have
actually suffered the most are the tradesmen with whom they
commonly deal, and the artisans in their employment. It is
impossible to affect materially the gigantic interest of agriculture
without striking a heavy blow at the prosperity of home
manufactures; and unfortunately these manufactures, or at least
many branches of them, are now liable to foreign competition. If it
should be allowed that this is a true statement of the case—and we
cannot see how it can be controverted—then it will appear that the
working-classes, the vast majority of whom are engaged in producing
for the home market, have lost largely in employment if they have
gained by cheaper food.
And it is most remarkable, that in proportion as food has become
cheap in this country, so has emigration increased. That is
apparently one of the strangest features of the whole case. What
contentment can there be in a nation when the people are deserting
their native soil by hundreds of thousands? They did not do so while
the other system was in operation. Whatever were the faults of
Protection, it did not give rise to scenes like the following, which we
find quoted in the Economist of 17th April, as if it were something
rather to be proud of than otherwise. The pious editor entitles it “The
Exodus.” Certainly he and his friends have made Ireland the reverse
of a land flowing with milk and honey:—

“The flight of the population from the south is thus described by the Clonmel
Chronicle:—‘The tide of emigration has set in this year more strongly than ever it
has within our memories. During the winter months, we used to observe solitary
groups wending their way towards the sea-coast, but since the season opened, (and
a most beautiful one it is,) these groups have been literally swelled into shoals, and,
travel what road you may, you will find upon it strings of cars and drays, laden
with women and children and household stuffs, journeying onward, their final
destination being America. In all other parts of the country it is the same. At every
station along the rail, from Goold’s Cross to Sallins, the third-class carriages
receive their quota of emigrants. The Grand Canal passage-boats, from Shannon
harbour to Sallins, appear every morning at their accustomed hour, laden down
with emigrants and their luggage, on their way to Dublin, and thence to Liverpool,
whence they take shipping for America.’”

And yet this wholesale expatriation is so far from appearing a

disastrous sign, that it does not even excite a word of comment from
the cold-blooded man of calculations. Truly there are various points
of similarity between the constitution of the Free-Trader and the
frog!
Remarkable undoubtedly it is, and to be remarked and
remembered in all coming estimates of the character and ability of
the men, styling themselves statesmen, whose measures have led to
the frightful depopulation of a part of the British Empire.
Remarkable it is, but not to be wondered at, seeing that the same
thing must occur in every instance where a great branch of industry
is not only checked, but rendered unprofitable. Succeeding
generations will hardly believe that it was the design of the Whigs
and the Free-Traders to feed the Irish people with foreign grain, and
so promote their prosperity, at a time when their sole wealth was
derived from agricultural produce. Just fancy a scheme for
promoting the prosperity of Newcastle by importing to it coals to be
sold at half the price for which that article is at present delivered at
the pit-mouth! Conceive to yourselves the ecstasy which would
prevail in Manchester if Swiss calicoes were brought there to be
vended at rates greatly lower than are now charged by the master
manufacturers! Undoubtedly the people of Newcastle and the
operatives of Manchester would in that case pay less than formerly
both for fuel and clothing—both of them “first articles of necessity;”
but we rather imagine that no long time would elapse before there
were palpable symptoms of a very considerable emigration. And lest,
in their grand reliance in a monopoly of coals and cottons, the Free-
Traders should scoff at our parallels as altogether visionary, we
challenge them to make a trial in a case which is not visionary. Let
them take off the manufacturing protective duties which still exist,
and try the effect of that measure upon Birmingham, Sheffield, and
Paisley. Of course they know better than to accept any such
challenge; but we warn the manufacturers—and let them look to it in
time—that the day is rapidly drawing near when all these duties must
be repealed, unless justice is done to the other suffering interests. If
they persist in asking Free Trade, and in refusing all equivalents or
reparation for the mischief they have done, they shall have Free
Trade, BUT ENTIRE. Then we shall see whether they—with all their
machinery, all their ingenuity, and all their capital—with all their
immunity from burdens which are imposed upon other classes—with
all the stimulus given to them by the income-tax, now levied since
1842, in order that taxes weighing on the manufacturing interest
might be repealed—can compete on open terms in the home market
with the manufacturers of the Continent. Do not let them deceive
themselves; that reckoning is nigh at hand. They must be content to
accept the measure with which they have meted to others; and we tell
them fairly, that they need not hope that this subject will be any
longer overlooked. Not one rag of protection can be left to
manufactures of any kind, whether made up or not, if Free Trade is
to be the commercial principle of the country. If so, the principle
must be universally recognised.
What is now taking place in Ireland, must, ere long, we are
convinced, take place in Britain. Nay, in so far as Scotland is
concerned, the same symptoms are exhibited already, almost in the
same degree. In one point of view, we cannot deplore the emigration.
If it is fated that, through the blindness and cupidity of men whose
religious creed consists of Trade Returns, and whose sole deity is
Mammon, the system which has contributed so much to the
greatness and wealth of the nation, and which has created a garden
out of a wilderness, is to be abandoned for ever, it is better that our
people should go elsewhere, and find shelter under a government
which, if not monarchïcal, may be more paternal than their own. It is
a bitter thing, that expatriation; but it has been the destiny of man
since the Fall. They will find fertile land to till in the prairies of the
West—they will have blue skies above them, and a brighter sun than
here; and, if that be any consolation to them in their exile, they may
still contribute to the supply of food to the British market, without
paying, as they must have done had they continued here, their quota
to the taxes of the country. But we must fairly confess that we feel
less sympathy for those who go than for those who are compelled to
linger. Until the home demand is revived—which can only be in
consequence of the enhanced value of home produce—we can see
nothing but additional misery in store for all those artisans and
operatives who are unconnected with the foreign trade. With regard
to that trade, we have yet to learn how it has prospered. Those who
are engaged in it admit that, in spite of increased exports—which, be
it remembered, do not by any means imply increased demand—their
reasonable hopes have been disappointed; and that in regard to the
countries from which we now derive the largest supply of corn, their
exports have materially decreased. That is a symptom of no common
significance; for it shows that, simultaneously with the increase of
their agriculture, those countries are fostering and extending their
own manufactures. As for the other—the home trade—it is, by the
unanimous acknowledgment of our opponents, daily dwindling; and
the income of the country—as the last returns of the property-tax,
which do not by any means disclose the whole amount of the deficit,
have shown us—has fallen off six millions within the last two years.
Were we to add the diminution on incomes under £150 per annum,
we have no doubt whatever that the loss would be found to amount
to more than three times that sum. All that is so much lost to the
retailer and home manufacturer. For a time, even yet, cheapness may
serve to palliate and disguise the evil; but it cannot do so long. Many
important branches of industry, such as the iron trade, are in a state
of extreme depression. The evil is not confined to the mother
country; it is impoverishing the fairest parts of our colonial empire.
Some of the sugar-growing colonies are on the verge of
abandonment. Unless a very different policy from that adopted by
the Liberals is pursued and sanctioned by the people of this country,
the catastrophe cannot long be delayed; and then, perhaps, the
British public, though too late, may be instructed as to the relative
value of colonial possessions of our own, and those belonging to
states which do not recognise reciprocity.
Years ago, when the Free-Traders were in the first blush of their
success, and the minds of men were still inflamed with the hot fever
of speculation, the advocates of the new system were requested to
state in what way they proposed to employ that mass of labour which
must necessarily be displaced by the substitution of so much foreign
produce instead of our own. They answered, with the joyousness of
enthusiasm, that there would be room enough and to spare in the
factories for every man who might so be thrown out of employment.
It was not until an after period that the stern and dreary remedy of
emigration was prescribed and enforced—not until it had become
apparent from experience that all their hopes of increased profit
from foreign trade and expected reciprocity were based upon a
delusion. Then indeed the misery which had been created by reckless
legislation was exalted into a cause for triumph, and the Exodus of
the poor from the land of their birth, wherein they no longer could
find the means of labour, was represented as a hopeful sign of the
future destinies of the country.
We are very far, indeed, from blaming those who, at the present
time, declare themselves averse to any violent changes, and who
think that some remedy and redress may be given, without having
recourse to an entire alteration of the principle upon which our
present commercial policy is based. It may be that time is yet
required before the effects of Free Trade can be fully felt and
appreciated by some of the classes of this country; and, certainly, the
first step which ought to be taken in the new Parliament, should be a
readjustment of taxation, corresponding to the altered circumstances
of the community. Of course, as this demand is founded strictly upon
justice, it will be opposed strenuously by many of those who glory in
their Liberal opinions; but we believe that the great bulk of the
British people, whatever may be their thoughts on other points, have
that regard to justice, that they will not countenance oppression. It
may be that the agricultural classes cannot yet expect to receive that
measure of relief which they have waited and hoped for so long. The
partial failure of the last harvest on the Continent, though it has not
brought up prices to a remunerative level, has had more than the
effect of checking their further decline; and that circumstance, we are
bound to admit, may have some influence on the minds of many who
are slow to believe that foreign importations can really affect the
permanence of British agriculture. The experience of another season
may be necessary to open their eyes. So far as we can gather from the
opinions of men who are engaged in the trade, and who are best
qualified to form a judgment upon such subjects, we may look almost
immediately for a great increase of importations, and a rapid decline
of prices. The failure on the Continent did not extend to the wheat
crop—it was limited to the rye and potatoes, the customary food of
the peasantry; and it is now ascertained that there is a large surplus
of wheat ready to be thrown into our ports. But it would be out of
place to discuss such points just now. The verdict lies with the
country, to which Lord Derby has appealed. If that verdict should not
be of a nature to enable him at once to apply a remedy to agricultural
distress, by the reimposition of a duty on corn, then we must look in
the first instance to such a readjustment of burdens as shall at least
give fair play to the cultivator of the soil. But there is much more
than this. The strength of the Protective case lies in its universal
application to all classes of the community; and it is not we, but our
opponents, who affect to regard it as a question in which no one is
interested beyond the landlord and the tenant. We look upon it as of
vital importance to the retailer, the tradesman, the artisan, and the
home manufacturer, and to all who labour for them; and it appears
to us that the time has now arrived when a full and searching
Parliamentary inquiry should be made on the subject of the cheap
loaf in connection with the rate of wages, and the prosperity of the
home trade. Surely the Free-Traders can have no reason to object to
this. They ground their case on philanthropy and regard to the
interest of the poor and labouring man, and in that respect we are
both agreed. Well then;—if, as we think and say, agricultural distress,
occasioned by the low prices which have prevailed in consequence of
the large importations of foreign corn, has had the effect of lessening
employment generally throughout the country—a position which, in
our mind, is much strengthened by the enormous and
unprecedented increase of emigration—surely that proposition is
capable of tangible proof or equally distinct refutation. Let us know,
from authentic sources, not from partial or interested assertion,
whether, along with the cheap loaf, the people have had full and
remunerative employment—whether the condition of the working-
classes and of the home interests has been improved by the change
or not. The inquiry undoubtedly would be an extended, but at the
same time a most valuable one. It would necessarily, in order to
arrive at a fair and thorough understanding of the subject, embrace
the present state of every trade as contrasted with that of former
years—it would show us in what way the home market has been
affected by what we must still be allowed to term a diminution of the
means of the purchaser. Surely such a subject as this is well worth
the pains of inquiry. Parliament cannot be better occupied than in
receiving evidence upon the condition of the people. And we cannot
rate too highly, either for the present or the future, the importance of
such an investigation in checking and correcting, or, it may be, in
confirming the doctrines of political economy, as they are usually
quoted and received.
Some, no doubt, may be interested in opposing such an inquiry.
We have little expectation that the Manchester men will accede to
any such reasonable proposal; for, as we have already said, we regard
this outcry of theirs for wild and sweeping reform simply as a ruse to
withdraw the attention of the public from the disastrous effects of
their lauded commercial system. Lord John Russell and his
immediate Liberal followers would probably oppose such an inquiry
as impious, because casting a doubt on the infallibility of Whig
tradition. But we are convinced that sensible and moderate men, of
every shade of opinion, would rejoice to see this vexed question
brought to something like a practical test; so that, whatever policy
England may pursue for the future, it shall at least have for its object
that of promoting the welfare and the happiness of the people.

Printed by William Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh.

1. Notes on the Distribution of Gold throughout the World. London: James

Wyld, 1851.
2. An Historical Inquiry into the Production and Consumption of the Precious
Metals. By William Jacob, Esq., F.R.S. London: 1851.
3. California: its Past History, its Present Position, its Future Prospects, p. 77.
4. We leave our readers to form their own opinion of the following passage
from Mr Theodore Johnson’s “Sights in the Gold Region:”—Speaking of the Padres
of the old mission of San Francisco Dolores, he says, “That these priests were
cognisant of the abundance of the precious metal at that period is now well known;
but they were members of the extraordinary society of the Jesuits, which, jealous of
its all-pervading influence, and dreading the effect of a large Protestant emigration
to the western as well as to the eastern shores of America, applied its powerful
injunctions of secresy to the members of the order; and their faithful obedience,
during so long a period, is another proof both of the strength and the danger of
their organisation.”—(Second Edition, p. 104.)
5. Reports of British Association for 1849—Appendix, p. 63.
6. Jacob, i. chap. x. passim.
7. Murchison—Reports of British Association, 1849, (Appendix, pp. 61, 62.)
8. “In the Temeswar Bannat the washings were performed exclusively by the
gypsies, who display great skill in finding it. They dig chiefly on the banks of the
river Nera, where more gold is found than in the bottom of the stream.”—Jacob, i.
p. 245.
9. A Ride over the Rocky Mountains. By the Hon. Henry J. Coke, p. 359.
10. Sights in the Gold Region, and Scenes by the Way. By Theodore J.
Johnson. Second Edition. New York, 1850.
11. Quoted by Jacob, vol. i. pp. 56, 57.
12. The Mormons, or Latter-Day Saints, (a cotemporary history,) p. 227.
London, 1851.
13. Jacob, i. p. 246, note.
14. Jacob, ii. pp. 263, 264, note.
15. A pood is 36 lb. Russian, of which 100 are about 90 English avoirdupois;
and a solotnik, 1–96th of a Russian pound, or about 65½ troy grains.
 16. Rose, Reise nach dem Ural, &c., chaps. ii. iv. viii. Berlin, 1842.
17. Compare Wyld, p. 26, with Jacob, ii. pp. 62, 167.
18. Jacob, i. p. 56. In copying the above extract from Diodorus, we inserted the
word quartz in brackets after his word “marble,” under the impression that the old
Egyptian mines were, like the similar ones in California, really situated in veins of
quartz, and not of marble. We have since communicated with a gentleman who,
about twenty years ago, accompanied M. Linant, a French engineer in the service
of Mehemet Ali, to examine these mines, and he informs us that the gold was really
found in quartz veins traversing a black slaty rock. The locality, as may be seen in
Sharpe’s Chronology and Geography of Ancient Egypt, plate 10, is in the Eastern
Desert, about the middle of the great bend of the Nile, and about the 21st parallel.
The samples of rock brought down by M. Linant were considered rich enough to
justify the despatch of a body of miners, who were subsequently attacked by the
natives, and forced to abandon the place. A strong government would overcome
this difficulty; and modern modes of crushing and extraction might possibly render
the mines more productive than ever. A very interesting account of these mines is
to be found in a work by Quatremere de Quincy—“Notice des Pays voisins de
l’Egypte.”
19. Ibid. p. 247.
20. Fournet, Etudes sur les Depôts Metallifers, p. 167.
21. The reader will be interested by satisfying himself of this fact, so peculiar
to Victoria, and so favourable to it as a place of settlement. He will find it pictured
before his eye in the newly-published small and cheap, but beautifully executed,
School Physical Atlas of Mr Keith Johnston.
22. Jacob, i. p. 55.
23. Ibid. ii. p. 267.
24. Fournet, p. 169.
25. Cortes invaded Mexico in 1519; Pizarro landed in Peru in 1527; and Potosi
was discovered in 1545.
26. Rose, Reise nach dem Ural, i. 555–7.
27. To some of our readers this remark may call to mind the beautiful process
of Mr Lee Pattinson, of Newcastle, for refining lead, by which so much more silver
is now extracted from all our lead ores, and brought to market.
28. Commercial Dictionary, edit. 1847, p. 1056.
29. Quoted in Johnston’s Notes on North America, vol. ii. pp. 216, 217.
30. The Life and Letters of Barthold George Niebuhr, with Essays on his
Character and Influence. By the Chevalier Bunsen and Professors Brandis and
Loeball. In 2 vols.
 31. Every one remembers that Goethe’s last words are said to have been,
“More Light;” and perhaps what has occurred in the text may be supposed a
plagiarism from those words. But, in fact, nothing is more common than the
craving and demand for light a little before death. Let any consult his own sad
experience in the last moments of those whose gradual close he has watched and
tended. What more frequent than a prayer to open the shutters and let in the sun?
What complaint more repeated, and more touching, than “that it is growing dark?”
I once knew a sufferer—who did not then seem in immediate danger—suddenly
order the sick room to be lit up as if for a gala. When this was told to the physician,
he said gravely, “No worse sign.”
32. Claret and Olives, from the Garonne to the Rhone. By Angus B. Reach.
London: 1852.
33. Mr Spackman, in his Analysis of the Occupations of the People, states the
whole number of persons employed in manufactures of every kind at 1,440,908;
the total

annual value of their production in 1841, at

£187,184,292
Whereof, for the Home Trade, £128,600,000
For the Foreign Trade, 58,584,292
187,184,292
 TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
1. Silently corrected obvious typographical errors and
variations in spelling.
2. Retained archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings
as printed.
*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S
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