The Journal of Imaginary Research is now accepting submissions of new short fictional pieces for our annual volume produced each November to celebrate Global Academic Writing Month. We publish imaginary research abstracts, and all our volumes are available as free downloads.
Deadline 5pm on Friday 5th December, 2025
What do we mean imaginary research abstracts?
We mean short works of fiction, that take a format that is familiar to us as researchers and academics. An abstract is the summary of an academic paper, that gives us a succinct overview of the research that has been done, and the new outcomes or ideas that the research has generated.
The 2025 theme: Shrinkage
For this year’s theme we’ve been considering the concept of making things smaller – shrinking them, becoming lesser.
We ask you, how can we research what is shrinking? This may relate to specific (imagined) research studies about shrinking, or it may relate to us as researchers, in our research work, in our disciplines, and in ourselves and our students? What might shrinkage mean for the support we receive from funders, the media and even our family and friends? What or who is shrink prone, shrink resistant, or pre-shrunk? What might we desire to shrink? What would we choose to minimise or miniaturise about research life, if we could?
When faced with a large intimidating endeavour we shrink away from it, and retaliate in kind by breaking it down into smaller, more manageable chunks. We can be asked to shrink ourselves to ‘fit in’, taking up less space, and being more digestible. We are regularly asked how we will shrink our carbon footprint.
Shrinkage can represent reduction, miniaturisation, withdrawal, withering, or decay — how things diminish but still carry meaning. An animal, shrinking away, might reflect vulnerability, dejection or fear. We humans can shrink from each other’s touch.
Can making things smaller make them more essential, pure and minimal? Safer even? Perfect? When we want to store something safely, we deploy shrink-wrap methods to protect and preserve. In doing so we shrink the risk of it perishing. But have you seen the size of a chocolate bar these days, another target of shrinkflation?
We’d like you to interpret the theme in your own way so that your submission relates to shrinkage in some way. You don’t need to explain this to us or within your piece. It’s fine to take the theme literally, after all you are writing a short précis or abstract of an imaginary larger work. It’s also fine to use the theme as a way to kick start your imagination. Where will your imaginary research go to?
Remember too, that the biography of the imaginary researcher that accompanies your fictional abstract is a good way of introducing links, expansions, satire, commentary and drama into your work. What sort of researcher might produce the imaginary research you describe? Is there a counterpoint in their biography, or something that affirms the work they are doing? How can you use the biography to enhance the fictional aspect of your work. This is your opportunity to indulge in both characterisation and worldbuilding.
TOP TIP! To avoid outdated colonial and/or racist terms, we ask you not to submit pieces referring to psychiatrists as ‘shrinks’.
Keep reading to find out how to get started and how to submit your writing…
Why do we publish fictional research?
We publish imagined research abstracts as works of fiction firstly because writing for enjoyment is a good thing to encourage. We spend a lot of time trying to reduce our anxiety about writing, and so writing imaginatively is a good way to reshape our relationship with writing into something creative and enjoyable.
Secondly, writing fiction in a familiar format, helps us to reflect on how we can creatively communicate our other research projects, and how we can find the joy of creativity within the grind of productivity. Creativity is a property of all writers and the privilege of all researchers. It allows us to dream and hope.
Can I see examples?
The imaginary abstracts we have published in Volumes 1–10 and our summer 2020 Special Issue were written by real academic staff, research staff, and research students. These volumes of our Journal-zine provide plenty of examples of the different approaches and styles, some funny, some serious, all completely made up.
How to get started with your submission: just choose an image…
How you approach your imaginary Abstract is open to you. We’d like you to use an image as writing prompt, and accompaniment to your finished piece. Start with an image; any copyright free image or photograph you choose. Use this as a prompt for your writing. Perhaps begin by noting down observable facts about the image, then add some invented facts from your imagination. Combine the observed and the imagined and think about other notions, words, and concepts you associate with your developing ideas. What imaginary research project could help you articulate, investigate, or explain what you see and what you imagine from the starting point offered to you by the image? You can deviate quite strongly from the literal image in the photograph, it’s just a starting point for your creativity.
Consider your imagined abstract and imagined researcher biography as a piece, together. Who is the researcher who would do this work? What are they like? Where do they work? What have they achieved in their career?
TOP TIP! Don’t send your completed piece straight away. Give it a day or so then return to refine it. Try it out on your pals and colleagues, and see what they think. Give it time to mature, iterative drafting is your friend.
To have your creative work considered for inclusion, please submit, in one MS Word file:
- A title for your fictional study
- A 200-word imagined (fictional) research abstract
- A 100-word imagined (fictional) researcher biography
- A high resolution copy of the copyright free image which accompanies your written abstract — by all means take a photo specifically for this purpose or see these resources if you don’t have a stash of your own:
https://pixabay.com
https://unsplash.com
https://genderspectrum.vice.com/ (gender inclusive photo set)
https://affecttheverb.com/collection/ (disabled, Black, Indigenous people, People of Color in work and home lives)
https://obesitycanada.ca/resources/image-bank/ (positive portrayals of individuals with obesity)
https://ageingbetter.resourcespace.com/pages/home.php (positive portrayals of older people)
Submit these four things for consideration to kay.guccione@glasgow.ac.uk by 5pm on Friday 5th December, 2025
Remember, have a look at Volumes 1–10 and our summer 2020 Special Issue to get an idea of the sort of work we publish.
Editorial process
Due to the volume of submissions we are now receiving, we have a fast and simple editorial process. When we receive your submission, we will do one of the following:
- accept and publish your submission without edits,
- make minor edits to your work and publish it in the current issue, or
- send your submission back to you with some suggestions on how to resubmit it for the next issue.
That means that your piece may be published with minor edits that you have not seen. If you would prefer that this doesn’t happen, then let us know when you submit. We haven’t had disappointed any writers yet, but we want you to be aware of our editorial processes so you can make an informed decision. In all cases you maintain the copyright on your submission, and no money is made by the sale of your writing.
TOP TIP! We commonly return submissions unpublished, when:
- They are not submitted in the Abstract genre – as in, they are not discernibly written in the style of a Research Abstract.
- There contain a large number of typographical errors or it is difficult to follow the logic and flow of the piece.
- They express discrimination or use hate speech or derogatory language against a group of people.
- They contain a lot of crude or toilet humour.
- They are very close in theme/topic to another piece within the same volume (pieces where the Imagined Researcher is a dog, cat, or robot are very commonly submitted)
Enjoy it!
TOP TIP! This is for fun!
A key aim of our journal-zine is to encourage academic colleagues to embrace writing simply for enjoyment, as an act of care, or as a reflective act. We also hope that reading and writing our imagined works, will bring an enjoyable diversion into your work lives.
Editors: Kay Guccione (on LinkedIn), and Matthew Cheeseman
Journal of Imaginary Research 