Set your PhD students up with opportunities to debate and share

Many of our PhD students join as art, design or communication practitioners. They are keen to further and deepen their knowledge of research methods and methodologies, while enjoying regular points of contact with their peers, and gain from critical feedback situated within a safe academic environment. That’s where “Methods of Intent”, a peer-led seminar series, and “itinerant space”, an alternative publishing platform, come in. 

Support peer-to-peer engagement

The success of Methods of Intent resides in its co-created curriculum undertaken by myself and students, supported by a small team of staff researchers. The series of weekly seminars, workshops and conversations seeks to deepen insights into communication research though peer-to-peer engagement. 

The intent is to share and expand our collective understanding of the multifarious ways in which communication research might be critically explored, tested and disseminated through theoretical and practical ways of knowing. It builds on students’ prior knowledge and aims to expand on and disrupt what they have already learnt. Methods of Intent discourages learning hierarchies. Instead, it supports open, transparent research conversations, fostering mutual respect and collaborative working practices. 

Methods of Intent provides the scaffolding for research conversations, while the online publication, itinerant space, offers a site for applied practices.

Subvert academic publishing practices 

itinerant space is an experimental online platform for doctoral researchers, which reflects upon conventional academic publishing practices and subverts them by exploring new ways of publishing research-in-progress. The journal supports four different formats – text, image, time-based and Sandbox – to accommodate the variable ways in which research extracts can be presented. 

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The journal’s editors are PhD students in the Royal College of Art’s School of Communication. My role is to oversee and support the project while also lending guidance, which usually takes a cue from my own experiences of academic publishing – and attempts to innovate. Editors and contributors pose issues that have been brought up via Methods of Intent. The following are three key areas of debate that have emerged.

Re-think peer review

Peer review has been contentious. This has led to the jettisoning of the old model of anonymous blind reviewing and given way to the creation of an open and transparent system, where the students meet and talk with each other about how best to foster the development of a contributor’s works for publication. This forum is informal, but not un-rigorous. Arguments can be heated, but in general talking through a problem works. 

itinerant space began with conversations between students within the School of Communication, but has now reached out to work with other RCA doctoral students, to enhance interdisciplinary dialogue. 

Publish research-in-progress

The format of the journal has been vigorously debated. One of the key questions the editors raised was how to capture the exploration of a practitioner’s process in an online space. Their solution was to introduce Sandbox. This is an application within the journal that lends itself to a versatile digital canvas, where contributors have control over presenting their visual compositions of text, image or time-based elements. This app offers a more playful, experimental approach to the display of research-in-progress for art and design practitioners. The results are spectacular. 

Develop an ethical approach

Ethics has been an inevitable focus. Debates on inclusion, freedom of speech, who is “allowed” to speak, and theories around class, decoloniality and gender have underpinned Methods of Intent and the online journal. What’s also been important is what constitutes ethical practices in terms of publishing processes, such as meeting website accessibility compliance. 

The editors have been pro-active in promoting inclusive practices such as facilitating workshops, as part of the doctoral training programme. These are based on clear ethical guidelines, which are circulated as part of the journal’s open calls for submissions. Each contributor has a say and technical support is available for all. 

Practical tips for setting up a publishing initiative

What to consider practically when setting up publishing initiatives:

• Don’t be in a rush. It takes time to set up online or print-based publishing platforms and to put into place the support for students taking the lead on the project. 
• Think ahead. Co-develop a three-year strategic plan that builds in flexibility, while establishing a clear trajectory of vision and practical milestones for the journal’s operation and development. 
• Make sure you’re informed by university policies on, for example, ethics, academic freedom, website management and accessibility compliance. 
• Anticipate cycles in the academic year to avoid directly impacting each editor’s and contributor’s existing PhD research workplans.
• Integrate skills sessions for academic publishing into existing doctoral training, like Methods of Intent, where all research students may benefit from sharing experiences of applied publishing practices. 
• Encourage collective ownership based on open and transparent discussions for setting up and implementing the journal’s principles and decision-making processes.
• Listen to students and keep in mind their own research goals and their aims for publishing. Recognise that the experience will not be the same for each student, and be mindful of inclusive practices. 

Foster an active research community

What fuels my commitment to Methods of Intent and itinerant space is to be involved in a process that contributes to PhD students gaining confidence as early career researchers. I have seen students at their best, co-operating in a way I never thought was possible. Students are actively involved in decision-making and learn from the insights that emerge from these processes. Just as importantly, they also have a good time. Playfulness and conversation are at the centre of everything, and a lot of cups of tea and biscuits are consumed. 

These two conversation spaces have led to students sharing and expanding their peer research networks, whether within the RCA or more widely into professional and academic practices. It’s been a privilege to witness how students have met the unanticipated challenges of publishing itinerant space, challenges that arise when working with a diverse set of subjects and individual positionings. What results is an active research community, forever forward-looking, wherein members support each other as they become independent researchers.

Teal Triggs is professor of graphic design and postgraduate research lead in the School of Communication, Royal College of Art. She has been shortlisted in the Outstanding Research Supervisor of the Year category in the 2024 Times Higher Education Awards. A full list of nominees can be found here. The awards will be presented at a ceremony in Birmingham on 28 November 2024.

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