On the afternoon of June 25th, the lecture on 'Academic Paper Writing and Publishing,' organized by the School of Design and Art, was held in Room 1302. Song Yang, a tenured professor at Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology and executive deputy editor of the CSSCI core journal 'Art Design Research,' was invited to give the talk. Centered on the methodology of 'using journal management thinking to guide writing,' the lecture directly addressed the challenges that art and design teachers face in academic publishing. From journal ecosystems and topic selection strategies to international publishing and research paradigms, it offered a highly condensed guide to academic writing.
Professor Song Yang first systematically reviewed the evaluation system of core domestic journals and the overall landscape of art and design journals. She provided a detailed explanation of the publication characteristics, column setup, submission standards, and review process of 'Art and Design Research,' and introduced the publication opportunities of newly added CSSCI journals. She emphasized that writers must develop an 'editorial perspective,' fully understanding the positioning and submission standards of different journals, and use this to reflect on their paper's problem awareness, structural logic, and academic norms, thereby improving the accuracy and success rate of submissions.
Focusing on 'what kind of research topics can impress top journals,' Professor Song Yang broke down the logic of developing high-quality topics from four dimensions: responding to national strategies, cross-cultural design research, tracking academic frontiers, and delving deeply into specialized topics. Addressing the common critique that design theory and practice are often disconnected, she specifically pointed out that competitive papers must distill theoretically meaningful propositions from vivid design practices and teaching, achieving the leap from 'how to make things' to 'why it is this way' and 'what it means.' She encourages teachers to build on their own professional strengths, stay close to current issues, and truly turn their creative and teaching experiences into in-depth academic thinking.
In the session on expanding international publishing horizons, Professor Song Yang introduced foreign core journals in the fields of art studies, design, and cultural heritage in a tiered manner, and specifically recommended beginner-friendly, standardized review channels for young teachers and graduate students, offering practical ways to open up international academic dialogue.
At the end of the lecture, she drew on her experience leading a major project funded by the National Social Science Fund to compare the stages of development and core methodological differences between Chinese and foreign design research. She clearly pointed out that Chinese design studies urgently need to break away from relying on Western theories and build research paradigms and an independent knowledge system with their own identity. This broad perspective offers a high-level reference for teachers to anchor their academic direction in the long term.
The entire lecture balanced practical work with theoretical depth, turning the tacit knowledge of academic publishing into clear, actionable steps. It effectively addressed the common challenges that art and design faculty face in producing and applying research, providing clear methodological guidance for the college to publish high-quality papers.
