Travelling for Scholarly Journal Research

Scholarly Journals exist to communicate within every given field of science and education. Publication in a scholarly journal is, and always has been, highly competitive. In order to be published data has to be reliable, the field of research centered upon a new perspective or discovery and the article has to be well written. The question is, with so many scholarly journals and articles already written in a competitive environment, how does one go about creating content that is unique and compelling?

Travel provides different perspective to every subject. In addition old customs, traditions and lore can lend alternative viewpoints which may be unique to previous data published in scholarly journals. This is true for every facet of research from cooking techniques to medicine to behavioural science. An excellent example is scientific research which shows that cancer rates are lower in third world countries. Understanding why, through first-hand experience, lends credible and interesting elements to any scholarly journal relevant to childcare, medicine, health or psychology.

Although it is possible to research and write scholarly journal content without actually visiting a location, the content will likely not ring as true, may present some unanswerable questions and will not enjoy the authenticity of the experience in the prose. That’s the upside of travelling to create scholarly journal worthy content. The downsides are probably the time commitment and the cost. Often scholarly journals will publish graduate dissertations and when your scholarly journal article is part and parcel of your dissertation that does make things easier in terms of time and money.

There are a number of grants available to graduate students who wish to travel to research data for dissertations and by extension, scholarly journal articles. Applications are usually open in the latter part of the school year or during the later semesters. These are a couple of the different travel grants available to students who may seek publication:

The University of North Carolina offers this award which is similar in terms of criteria and timing as many other university travel awards:

Pre-Dissertation Travel Award These awards are intended to get Ph.D. candidates into the field to do preliminary globally-focused explorations of potential research materials in preparation for writing a dissertation proposal. As such, the ideal time to hold this award is after passing comprehensive exams and before defending the proposal.

Similarly to North Carolina Illinois offer students travel assistance but at Illinois graduate students are offered a grant as compared to an Award. The difference is usually that the funding of a grant will cover partial costs while an award will more often (not always) cover all funding required. This is the criteria for travel grants as set by Illinois:

The Graduate College Illinois Dissertation Travel Grants Dissertation Travel Grants provide reimbursement to subsidize travel and associated costs necessary for doctoral dissertation research, whether for exploring a potential dissertation topic (i.e., before extensive research has been done) or for conducting dissertation research. Approximately 12 grants at amounts up to $5,000 will be awarded given sufficient funding.  Preference is given to students who have never received a Dissertation Travel Grant. Students who have already received $5,000 in previous travel grants are not eligible. Grants will not be awarded for travel that has taken place prior to the completion of the competition process. 

Other Travel Grants in Aid of Dissertation or Scholarly Journal Content

Those are just a couple of examples for two states. Almost every university will have a program in place to help their students get the travel funding they need to create great dissertations with a chance of publication in a scholarly journal. It pays to look around to see what’s available even before you choose a topic for that scholarly journal article. It may make the difference between several choices.