Writing With Librarians: Reporting Back on Turning Your Poster or Presentation Into an Article

Objective: The objective of this article is to report on the process and effectiveness of a workshop presented at the Research Data Access and Preservation Summit 2019. Reporting back on how the workshop was developed and the impact it had on participants can inform future workshops on writing for librarians. Workshop materials are available in an associated OSF project.

Methods: The authors approached workshop development holistically—that writing is a craft that requires habits and networks, and that participants are interested in hearing the technical guidelines of writing and submitting an article. The workshop dedicated time to activities meant to build a plan for writing. Data presented in this article was collected using Qualtrics, and is reported on in aggregate. Participants responded to the survey before the workshop started and after the conclusion of the workshop.

Results: Participants reported that the workshop gave them a plan for how to move forward with transforming their presentation or poster into an article, and that they generally felt more empowered to write.

Conclusions: This article suggests that it is important to provide an avenue for authors to develop professionally around writing. Attendees were eager for an opportunity to develop their writing, and to learn more about the opaque processes related to publishing an article, like how double-blind peer-review works and the different types of articles. The authors hope that others can reuse the materials presented at the workshop and provide more avenues of professional development for librarians and library professionals.