My first journal publication from my PhD! yay!

When you are a researcher, you spend a lot of time writing up the method of how you did the research and the results of the research in academic articles. Many of these academic articles are published in journals and conferences. Journals have a higher prestige but conferences are fun because you get to travel. I have been publishing articles for about 10 years now. It’s kinda like doing an assignment, where you hand it in to your teacher and you get a grade. In the case of an academic article, you get an accept or reject and then comments on how to improve it (someone you don’t know writes these comments about your paper). Then if you are lucky, you get an accept and you have some revisions to make, which you do and then you send it back to the journal/conference. It is a constant thing that researchers do, and everyone is striving to get high-ranking journal articles (these help with getting jobs and promotions).

So I was very excited to get the news that my first journal article based on my PhD is now published! The link is here:

http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=1953982&show=abstract

If you can’t read it, I have posted the abstract below. Basically the paper discusses how people become members of secret underground file sharing communities to share music. Totally illegal communities, but very interesting (this was the topic of my PhD research). If you want a copy of the paper, please email me at: techgirlsarechic@gmail.com

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate the rules and rituals for joining and operating within underground music file sharing communities as well as the members’ motivations for joining.

Design/methodology/approach – Actor-network theory is combined with an ethnographic methodology to explore the structure, technology and rules of these communities from an actor-oriented, member perspective. Empirical data include in-depth interviews with three file sharers, and participant-observations for 120 days within an online community.

Findings – The paper provides an increased understanding of the structured and orderly nature of underground music file sharing communities and the perceived importance of strong rules and rituals for membership. Many communities use the same open-source software.

Research limitations/implications – Only a small number of file sharers (three) were interviewed. However they provide rich insights into this under-researched topic.

Practical implications – An understanding of these sophisticated underground file sharing communities assists the further development of legitimate online music systems to appeal to the large number of individuals involved in music file sharing communities.

Social implications – This paper provides an understanding of the practices within a subculture that is currently regarded as deviant and illegal, and contributes to the discussion and policy formulation on file sharing.

Originality/value – This study is the only known ethnography investigating underground music file sharing communities. These communities have not been systematically studied previously and the paper addresses this lack of research literature. This study is also novel as it applies actor-network theory to a context to which it has not previously been applied.